The Bioshock movie is still happening but with a reduced budget

We haven’t had an update on Netflix’s Bioshock movie in a couple of years, leading some to wonder if it was quietly canned. The good news? The movie’s still coming. The (potential) bad news? The budget has been slashed, according to reporting by Variety.

This comes from producer Roy Lee, who was one of the people behind The Lego Movie. He announced the reduced budget during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con. He didn’t put out any numbers, but did say that the movie is currently being “reconfigured” to be a “more personal” film. Director Francis Lawrence is still helming the picture. He has directed four of the five Hunger Games movies, along with I Am Legend and the original Constantine.

The Bioshock film was first announced back in 2022, but since that time Netflix has experienced something of a regime change on the executive level. Dan Lin replaced Scott Stuber as the streamer’s film chief and Lin has tightened the purse strings away from stuff like Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon.

“The new regime has lowered the budgets,” Lee said at Comic-Con. “So we’re doing a much smaller version.”

In addition to budget cuts, Lee noted that Netflix has changed its compensation strategy with regard to movies. It’s shifting to a more traditional model that relies on bonuses tied to actual viewership numbers.

This could actually be good news. In my opinion, personal stories tend to work better than constant CGI battles with hordes of faceless baddies. Bioshock is also, at its heart, a personal story about family, with the fantastical Rapture setting being window dressing.

I guess it ultimately depends on how much of that budget was cut. There’s a big difference between a slightly reduced budget and a massive cut that turns all of the footage into darkened corridor scenes filmed in a series of Toronto or Atlanta warehouses. The release date hasn’t been announced and, honestly, it could still be a ways off. Director Lawrence has a lot on his plate right now, including an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk and yet another Hunger Games movie.