Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy director Gore Verbinski (pictured left) has been tapped to direct a feature film adaptation of 2K Games' BioShock, Variety reports.

The film will be developed by Universal Studios, which green-lit a multimillion-dollar advance to BioShock publisher and property owner Take-Two Interactive for the film rights.

Universal also announced that Gladiator, The Aviator and Sweeny Todd screenwriter John Logan is in talks to pen the film's script. The studio has not yet targeted a release date for the film, though director Verbinski said he plans to start pre-production as soon as the script is finished and approved.

Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said the deal was structured to prevent any hangups in production, and to protect the property. Zelnick himself, formerly president of Fox, brokered the deal in lieu of a production company.

"The reason I structured it the way I did is to make sure it gets made," Zelnick said. "One of the things we decided early on is that we didn't want to go through a producer. It's terribly important to us to have a meaningful influence on how ... Read more

A report in the latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine furthers the long-running rumor that BioShock creator and 2K Boston studio head Ken Levine is working on a new entry in the long-dormant extraterrestrial tactical series X-COM, though it offers no new details.

The rumor has been circulating ever since a document attributing an X-COM title to then-Irrational Games, now-2K Boston and 2K Australia was found last year. The current projects of the studios behind BioShock (PC, X360) are unknown, though Levine is known to be participating in the production of BioShock 2 at the recently-founded 2K Marin office.

Further anecdotal evidence of a new X-COM game emerges from Levine's undying love of the X-COM franchise, which he has referred to as "sort of like my first love," as well as studio owner Take-Two Interactive's 2005 purchase of the X-COM property.

Apart from the supposed existence of a new X-COM, the OXM article did not unveil any new specifics or details, according to the Kotaku report.

A PlayStation 3 version of 2K Boston and 2K Australia's story-driven underwater shooter BioShock will arrive this September, assuming rumors printed within the June issue of EGM are true.

According to the magazine and proven NeoGAF proxy SuperSonic 1305, the PlayStation 3 port will pack improved visuals over the previous PC and Xbox 360 editions along with the previously-released free downloadable content.

When reached for comment today, 2K Games told Shacknews it had "no comment" on the matter. A PlayStation 3 iteration of BioShock was denied by creator Ken Levine last August, though his phrasing only indicated the studio was not pursuing a PS3 version at that time.

EGM's writeup further states that the upcoming BioShock 2 will be unveiled around September as well. No platforms have been announced for the 2K Marin-developed sequel, though PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions are expected.

Five job listings for BioShock 2 have appeared on Gamasutra, offering new tidbits on the possible platforms and story of the narrative-driven shooter sequel.

Revealed earlier this year and due out at some point between August and October 2009, BioShock 2 is currently under development at 2K Marin with the involvement of series creator Ken Levine. No platforms have been announced, though the original released simultaneously on PC and Xbox 360.

While all five roles--senior designer, lead designer, character rigger/animator, senior animator, and FX artist--generically list PlayStation 3, Xbox and Wii under platforms, nothing else within the job descriptions implies a Wii edition is underway.

However, the text for the role of senior designer specifically notes that PlayStation 3 experience is required, strongly suggesting that a PlayStation 3 version of BioShock 2 is being developed alongside the possible PC and Xbox 360 editions.

Additionally, the job listing for character rigger/animator reveals... Read more

Speaking at the 2008 Smid Cap Conference, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick mentioned massively multiplayer online editions of BioShock and Civilization as examples of the company's "potential untapped opportunities."

Following the release and strong sales performance of 2K Boston and 2K Australia's story-driven underwater shooter BioShock (PC, X360) last summer, Zelnick noted Take-Two's intent to transform BioShock into an ongoing franchise.

A sequel to BioShock, announced earlier this month and developed by 2K Marin with the involvement of creator Ken Levine, is slated to arrive on unspecified platforms between August and October of 2009.

As initially reported by MTV Multiplayer, other opportunities for Take-Two, which today told its stockholders to reject a hostile takeover bid from Electronic Arts, include a film adaptation of BioShock as well as mobile phone iterations of both BioShock and Carnival Games.

Publisher Take-Two Interactive today officially confirmed that a sequel to 2K Boston and 2K Australia's underwater shooter BioShock will arrive during the company's fiscal fourth quarter in 2009.

Take-Two's fourth fiscal quarter runs from August through the end of October.

BioShock 2 is under development by the Novato, California-based studio 2K Marin. The new development house is rumored to consist of several former 2K Boston and 2K Australia employees.

The publisher also announced that BioShock creator Ken Levine will be involved in the development of the sequel, though his role on the project was not specified. Levine's home studio of 2K Boston is rumored to be working on a new X-COM title.

"[Ken Levine] is critical to BioShock," said a Take-Two representative.

No platforms were announced. The game will likely make an appearance on both Xbox 360 and PC, and comments made earlier in the year by 2K Games president Christopher Hartmann indicate the game could also be released on PlayStation 3.

The latest Gamers With Jobs podcast has an interview with Ken Levine, asking the 2K Boston boss about The Orange Box and Valve, the Spike TV awards, emergent story telling and more.

There's a Ken Levine Q&A on GamePro, asking BioShock's creative director about development of that game.

The long-awaited BioShock patch is now available from FileShack, updating the game to v1.1. The 27mb download fixes a host of technical issues, while also adding new plasmids and gene tonics to the game.

As we noted earlier, the patch and new DLC are also available for the Xbox 360 release of the game. ... Read more

The first patch and round of downloadable content for Irrational Games' 2K Boston and 2K Australia's dystopian underwater FPS BioShock (PC, X360) arrives in just a few hours, at 12 AM PST/3 AM EST on Tuesday, December 4. (Update: It's here!)

As promised, the one-two patch-DLC sucker-punch will allow users to tweak their horizontal field-of-view, which was an incredibly controversial omission following the game's August release. Other additions detailed in the full change log include new plasmids, a new Xbox 360 achievement, the ability to disable Vita Chambers, and numerous bug fixes.

Once the patch is available, Xbox Live-connected Xbox 360 players will be automatically prompted to download it when they boot the game, with the free plasmid DLC requiring a separate manual download from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Said plasmids are included in the PC patch, which will be available from a number of sites, including your local neighborhood FileShack. Those who purchased the game via Steam or Direct2Drive will find the patch available through those services.

Word of the patch's imminent arrival came from beloved community manager Elizabeth Tobey via the official source of all things BioShock, The Cult of Rapture.

Publisher 2K Games sends word that a few BioShock patches will be released next week, in addition to a free downloadable content pack for the hit game. (Update: It's here!)

2K community manager Elizabeth Tobey tells Shacknews that the DLC will at least include extra plasmids for players to mess around with, a way to disable Vita-Chambers for hardcore play, and bug fixes.

The patches will also address the game's field-of-vision perspective, following an intense bout of controversy over the way BioShock handles its widescreen display.

A title update to the Xbox 360 version will be released alongside the DLC, while the PC patch will come bundled with the content. Expect a patch list to be posted on The Cult of Rapture website when the downloads go live.

The folks at 2K Boston let us know that they are hiring. The developer behind BioShock is looking for programmers, producers, designers, artists and audio engineers.

Sounding Like a Winner on GameZone talks to Garry Schyman, composer of the music found in BioShock.

In case our own spoiler-laden interview with Ken Levine wasn't enough, GameSpot now also has an interview about specific elements in BioShock. Don't read unless you have finished the game!

The 50th Gamers With Jobs podcast is up, co-hosted by 2K Games Boston's Ken Levine. As you'd expect, BioShock is among the topics discussed.

Looks like Rapture may have a second coming. In an analyst conference call, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick revealed the company's plans to turn 2K Boston/2K Australia's BioShock into an ongoing franchise.

Zelnick was addressing an analyst's question on how to avoid watering down a franchise with annual releases but still foster innovative development on a regular basis. The chairman said Take-Two would be roughly on a biennial schedule for game releases if it didn't have to worry about fostering creativity in game design.

"I would say, probably, roughly an every-two-year schedule would be optimal. And if you look historically that has been largely the case with GTA, and I'd expect we'd apply rougly the same strategy to BioShock because BioShock is shaping up to be a very important franchise," Zelnick said in... Read more

Good afternoon everyone, Geedeck here to share with you the winners of the "Big Daddy's Day Off" contest and tell you a bit about some new directions with the Shack. First off, the contest turned out some really great results and apologies for any delay. It's always a real pleasure to do a contest like this and get a large bunch of entries that don't leave us with a simple decision. Our second place winner is ghostdad with Mr. Bubbles risking typecasting and our first place winner is GibMonkey illustrating how even on his day off, Big Daddy can't catch a break. We'll be sending the BioShock 360 faceplate to GibMonkey and the mouse pad to ghostdad.

While not the winners, some other excellent pieces show off Big Daddy's love of Shacking, Gamelon, football, hockey, teatime (twice!), cooking, showering, dancing, a literal depiction, and as interpreted by 1980s Sierra among others.

Second, there are some changes in store for the Shacknews community. It's always been a significant part of the Shack, but previously we haven't been able to give it proper focus. Shacknews wouldn't be what it is without the community, therefore Steve and co. have asked me to join Shacknews as the community manager.

In this position I want to help the readers share the spotlight with other Shack features and more. What this will amount to has yet to be fully decided. We have some notions in mind but would also like to hear your thoughts. You can either drop me an email at jeff@shacknews.com, send me a ShackMessage, or post your thoughts in this article, and we'll go from there.

Update: Shacker sevogajre tells us that clearing the game's cache--accomplished by holding the left and right bumpers from boot until the appearance of the 2K Games logo--solves the stuttering issue in the Xbox 360 version.

Original Story: Like a bathysphere rising out of the depths, details have at long last surfaced on the mysterious BioShock title update that began prompting Xbox Live-connected players earlier this week.

According to publisher 2K Games, the brief download--which must be applied in order to stay signed into Xbox Live--resolves several slight issues. In particular, the update improves general game stability, especially when loading autosaves. It also tweaks the way enemies use health stations and fixes a slight audio glitch during menu loading.

However, it just wouldn't be a proper BioShock news item if it wasn't for the presence of unfortunate, and presumably unintended, technical ... Read more

Recently, posts spread around the internet detailing BioShock's former setting of an isolated tropical island inhabited by genetically experimental Nazis, demonstrating just how much a game can change from initial conception to final product. That's nothing on what the game was about before then, however: a cult deprogrammer hired by the parents of a woman involved in a lesbian relationship to kidnap the daughter and rewrite her brain to steer clear of what her parents perceive as deviant activity.

Update: Ken Levine has contacted Shacknews to clarify that the player in the prior revision of BioShock's story did not necessarily reprogram a lesbian character; such actions are merely examples of the sort of tasks actual deprogrammers are hired to perform in the real world. Irrational's earlier story was more political in nature, with a deprogrammer being hired by a senator.

Original story: BioShock's creative director Ken Levine detailed the bizarre former premise to Shacknews during an extensive interview about BioShock, its world, and its fascinating and deranged denizens. The interview is packed with spoilers, however, so here are his remarks presented in a safe setting:

"There was another story before that about a cult deprogrammer," Levine explained. "I don't know if you know what a cult deprogrammer is... Read more