‘BioShock’ Unused Concept Art Reveals the Movie Adaptation That Might Have Been

Years ago, following the release of the first BioShock video game, ‘The Lone Ranger’ director Gore Verbinski was hired to helm a film adaptation of the wildly popular and incredibly dark property for Universal. After some struggles with the studio over the rating and financing, the adaptation sunk back into the depths of development purgatory, where it’s remained ever since. If you ever wanted to know what Verbinski’s take might have looked like, some unused concept art has revealed an adaptation that appears to be very faithful to its source material—based on looks alone, anyway.

Concept illustrator Kasra Farahani, who was the art director on ‘Thor’ and ‘Star Trek into Darkness,’ and who also provided the concept art for ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,’ has released some unused concept art for the ‘Bioshock’ film that never was over on his blog (via Blastr).

You can check out the art below, which features some beautiful set design and concepts that seem to remain very faithful to the original video game, which follows Jack, a man who discovers the haunting underwater utopia known as “Rapture,” created by business magnate Andrew Ryan (a guy who Ayn Rand would probably get along with swimmingly), where the citizens who remain have become crazed mutants, obsessed with a serum known as ADAM. That serum gives the inhabitants—as well as Jack—superpowers, and Jack must navigate the city and fight off huge protectors known as Big Daddies, who guard the enigmatic and eerie “Little Sisters” while they harvest ADAM.

Verbinski, who also directed three ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films, was set to direct the project, but butted heads with the studio when he pushed for an R-rated feature that would cost over $200 million—which is a lot of money to bank on a film that’s rated R. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (‘28 Weeks Later’) eventually stepped in with Verbinski producing, and they were still aiming for an R-rated feature, but Universal grew apprehensive following the underwhelming box office of Zack Snyder’s ‘Watchmen’ adaptation.

Now, it appears that Sony has the rights to make a ‘BioShock’ film, and back in August, they registered some curious domain names (via IGN) suggesting that the project might not be entirely dead. Perhaps there’s still hope for the future of Rapture on the big screen after all.

Check out the unused ‘BioShock’ film concept art below: