Due to budget concerns, the BioShock movie has been put on ice — don't tell Prison Break actor Wentworth Miller!
If director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of Caribbean) were to helm the picture, he says the movie would need to be filmed abroad. "The bottom line is it has to shoot out of the States for budget reasons and my schedule may be prohibitive." he tells The Los Angeles Times. "Big movies are just not being shot in the States. I'm weighing whether I can physically go the U.K. or Australia or one of those other places with a tax rebate for a year-and-a-half."
In the mean time, Verbinski is busying himself with game development at his production company Blind Wink. He's hired Pandemic game designer Will Stahl to lead the endeavor. Blink Wink is working of five projects. "Some of the stuff we're doing is taking a conventional [first person shooter] experience and tweaking it in a way that hasn't been thought of before," Verbinski explains. "We looked at it from a different angle and changed the experience."
Verbinski is giving Stahl room to breath and not trying to impose Hollywood on game design. According to Verbinski:
When I meet with Hans Zimmer on a score, I don't tell him what notes to play. My respect for artists is very high. I think to get the most out of them, you have to liberate them. I think part of liberating them is saying, "Come up with something brilliant, new, and fresh. Stop thinking based on what has been beat into you by executives or publishers in terms of what's going to work and what's not. Don't react, just act."
I want to be clear I'm not not talking about directing a game the way I direct a movie. There are better people. It's more assembling a great team of talented people and getting them inspired.
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Company Town: Breaking industry news and scoops [The Los Angeles]