Universal Pictures halted Gore Verbinski's live-action adaptation of horror videogame Bioshock due to budget concerns. For non-gamers, the storyline takes place in the underwater city Rapture, where a pilot crash-lands near a secret entrance and becomes involved in a power struggle.
The brakes were put on during pre-production, and the studio has let some production staff go while they try and figure out a way to make the film on the cheap. Reports say that the movie was gearing up to film in LA, but that all changed when the budget rose to $160 million. Now the project is looking at alternatives, like shooting in England as a way to reduce costs.
We were asked by Universal to move the film outside the U.S. to take advantage of a tax credit," Verbinski said. "We are evaluating whether this is something we want to do. In the meantime, the film is in a holding pattern.
So far the horror movie hasn't been "killed." Variety says that the studio is determined to make the pic. In fact, Verbinski (who has also been directing the Paramount animated film Rango with Johnny Depp) bowed out of directing a fourth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean specifically so that he could produce and direct Bioshock.