User blog comment:Gardimuer/Irrational Interviews Guillermo del Toro and other news/@comment-3503432-20111107222527/@comment-2250991-20111107235224

Its because of Universal Studios, not Verbinski, that the film couldn't be made. Verbinski actually played the game thoroughly, and wants the adaptation to be just like the game. But like most Comic Books and Video Games, Universal Studios think because BioShock is a Video Game, the movie adaptation should be reduced to a PG-13 rating to appeal to both kids and teenagers to profit more money, instead of making it R rated because the studio can't get their budget back from just adults. The whole "Dark subject matter" relates more with what's in the game, so stuff like Little Sisters Gathering ADAM, physically murdering people, any drugs and alcohol, Rapture's lack of censorship, and Steinman's surgeries would not be passible in a PG-13 film. Even the changes were bad, like Little Sisters not drinking from harvested corpses, and having the Big Daddies Gather ADAM instead by jamming needles into the corpses and make Little Sisters drink from them. Its a complex process, but that's why they didn't allow for Verbinski to make it his way, and caused a restriction on the budget when he wanted to make it R rated, and they would allow him a larger budget if it was made with the PG-13 rating. Even Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, the 2nd director, wants the film to be R rated. However, Neither Verbinski and Fresnadillo couldn't get a investor interested in a R rated version, so Fresnadillo left the project, and until Ken Levine can convince the studio for a new BioShock story that both can agree on, the film is currently shelved from production.