BioShock movie 'still in the conversation,' says Levine

BioShock series creator Ken Levine talks about the currently stalled status of a BioShock movie, and how he feels about BioShock Infinite being converted to the big screen.

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When the original BioShock gained critical and commercial success in 2007, it immediately caught the attention of Hollywood. Since then, a planned movie adaptation has languished with budget concerns and changing directors. Now, series creator Ken Levine says the movie is still being discussed, in spite of the studio's focus on BioShock Infinite.

"I think we're in the space now of building properties that are appealing to people, and there's a version of BioShock that makes a great game and there's probably a version of BioShock that makes a great movie," Levine told IndustryGamers. "I think for us as a company, we don’t have any need to get a movie made."

Levine says that if a movie does happen, it has to have the "right pieces" in place to meet their level of quality. "We've had a lot of great talks with great people about it. We got close to great people, but you always have to have all of those pieces in place and that's going to be very challenging. It's a moving puzzle, but I’m going to be continually talking to people about it. It's definitely something that’s still in the conversation."

But now the movie faces another challenge: which BioShock universe to use. With Infinite, the series has come to represent general concepts instead of the undersea world of Rapture. Levine is hesitant to think about the sky-city of Columbia being the iteration to hit the big screen, though. "Right now, I think mostly about the game," he said. "And when it's done, and I have the story worked out completely -- every single detail of it, I'll probably be more comfortable thinking about that. But right now I'm really just focused on BioShock Infinite as a game."

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