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Juan Carlos Fresnadillo Leaves Rapture, No Longer Directing ‘Bioshock’

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For my money, “Bioshock” is the best that the modern gaming era has to offer. Even though its sequel was incredibly disappointing, I can’t wait for “Bioshock Infinite”, primarily because it marks the return of Ken Levine to the franchise. One thing we may never be getting is the Bioshock movie. And to be honest, I’m increasingly fine with that. The first game is so perfect that I’m beginning to believe that a film depiction of that world could only disappoint.

When the initial incarnation of the Bioshock film was announced at Universal with Gore Verbinski at the helm, I was incredibly excited. Verbinski is nothing if not an incredibly talented visual stylist. But the Hard-R rating it would require combined with the fact that it would cost hundreds of millions to produce wound up stalling the project for so long that Verbinski stepped aside as a director (though he remains a producer) and they hired Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. The aim at the time was also very much on a more cost-friendly adaptation of the game. But that incarnation seems to have bitten the dust as well.

Fresnadillo told The Playlist, “To be honest, by now, I’m completely out of that, and developing other stuff. Right now it’s on hold. The studio and the videogame company, they have to reach some kind of agreement about the budget and the rating.

Per the usual, Ken Levine isn’t in any hurry either. Last year he stated, “We got very close to having it get made – we had a deal in place and a director. But for us there’s no burning [desire] to have a movie made just to get it made,” Levine stressed. “For us and for Take-Two, it’s really got to be something that will a) give the fans something that they want, and b) for those who don’t know ‘Bioshock,’ really introduce them to something that is consistent with the game, and is it going to be a good representation of the game.

What do you think? Do you want the “Bioshock” movie to happen or are you content with the games?

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’28 Years Later’ – Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Join Long Awaited Sequel

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28 Days Later, Ralph Fiennes in the Menu
Pictured: Ralph Fiennes in 'The Menu'

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (AnnihilationMen), the director and writer behind 2002’s hit horror film 28 Days Later, are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel, 28 Years Later. THR reports that the sequel has cast Jodie Comer (Alone in the Dark, “Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu).

The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – director Nia DaCosta is currently in talks to helm the second installment.

No word on plot details as of this time, or who Comer, Taylor-Johnson, and Fiennes may play.

28 Days Later received a follow up in 2007 with 28 Weeks Later, which was executive produced by Boyle and Garland but directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now, the pair hope to launch a new trilogy with 28 Years Later. The plan is for Garland to write all three entries, with Boyle helming the first installment.

Boyle and Garland will also produce alongside original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, the division of one-time studio Twentieth Century Fox that originally backed the British-made movie and its sequel.

The original film starred Cillian Murphy “as a man who wakes up from a coma after a bicycle accident to find England now a desolate, post-apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that turned its victims into raging killers. The man then navigates the landscape, meeting a survivor played by Naomie Harris and a maniacal army major, played by Christopher Eccleston.”

Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, though the actor isn’t set to appear in the film…yet.

Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024 thanks to this casting news. Stay tuned for more updates soon!

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