Guillermo del Toro’s BioShock film died on one phone call, and now he’s done with video game adaptations for good

Here's something for anyone who's ever dreamed of seeing another proper game-to-film adaptation actually cross the finish line: Guillermo del Toro has finally put a pin in the saga of his long-rumoured BioShock movie. For years, it's been an open secret the celebrated director was at one stage working on a take of the dystopian underwater shooter, but no one's ever been very clear as to what actually happened behind the scenes. Well, del Toro has now set the record straight in the driest, most definitive possible way.

BioShock was abandoned by del Toro after he suffered through what he describes as 'probably one of the most disastrous calls I’ve ever had.'

This all came up as part of IGN's 30th anniversary 'Icons' series, where del Toro was asked if he’d ever give the whole video game movie thing another punt. His reply, true to form, was 'You know, I tried.' That’s putting it mildly, as he went on to say his brushes with gaming adaptations have essentially put him off for life. Apparently, it's not just the licensing headaches; del Toro believes games and films are entirely different beasts. Sure, games can be cinematic on the surface, what with fancy camera movements and all that—but to his mind, storytelling in a game is built on decision, discovery, and puzzles, while films are, well, fixed narratives.

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BioShock adaptation: sunk before it swam

He specifically called out BioShock, explaining that, while he did genuinely have some calls about developing an adaptation, the whole process was swiftly scuppered by an absolute car crash of a meeting. He left out names and played coy about the specifics—so no producer mudslinging, nor tales of wild script rewrites—but suffice to say, whatever went down on that fateful call was enough for del Toro to swear off the whole enterprise.

When pressed on whether he'd ever consider picking up a video game property again, del Toro didn't mince words, apparently answering with a rather emphatic 'Never again. No, not at all.'

The history—and the final word

This isn’t entirely out of the blue. Rumours of del Toro being attached to BioShock have done the rounds for nearly a decade, and back in 2017 he was on record as saying the game was ripe for a movie adaptation. But this is the first time he’s properly confirmed just how close it got—and how quickly it went off the rails.

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