Despite the vast majority of video game adaptations not being particularly well-liked critically (and that’s putting it kindly), they often still manage to attract big name actors, with bothFantastic Beastsstar Eddie Redmayne andFifty Shades of Greyactor Jamie Dornan recently revealing that they put themselves forward for a role in a mooted big screen adaptation ofBioshock. While discussing their time living together as roommates and struggling to find work, Redmayne confirmed that both he and Dornan auditioned for the same role inBioshock.
“I’m slightly embarrassed you’re putting that out into the public arena, given I used to tell my parents that I was going to L.A. in January to endlessly slave away to attempt to get work. You and Andrew Garfield and I were texting, trying to remember what those things were. And one of them was BioShock.You remember BioShock? We were furious with each other as we were going through it, and competing for the same role.”
A retro-futuristic first-person shooter set in 1960,Bioshockfinds players controlling the protagonist, Jack, after his airplane crashes in the ocean. Jack is led to the underwater city of Rapture, a planned utopia that was thrown into destructive decline following the discovery ADAM, a genetic material which can be used to grant superhuman powers. The video game series features the kind of complex plotting that seems prime for live action realisation, and there have been solid plans over the years to bring a movie based onBioshockto the silver screen. The effort that got closest was set to be directed byPirates of the Caribbeandirector Gore Verbinski with a release date of 2011, the project was cancelled in 2009 due to budget issues, among other things.
It is unknown what role both Eddie Redmayne andJamie Dornantried out for, but it’s unlikely to have been a minor role. Ultimately the adaptation never came to fruition, but either of the two actors could have made a decent lead.
Talk of a big screenBioshockouting continues to this day, withThe BoysstarJack Quaid recently offering his own pitch, and declaring that the story could be better adapted for a series rather than cinema. “I think they should make a TV show out of Bioshock,” the actor said last year. “[A] movie’s too small…..I mean, I literally have the skyhook over here, but Infinite’s good. I think it’s simpler and just more interesting with the very first one….And Minerva’s Den in two is amazing, but yeah, they’ve got to do it someday.”
For now,Eddie Redmaynehas his hands full with a variety of magical problems thanks to reprising the role of Newt Scamander in the upcomingFantastic Beasts 3. The sequel is currently filming in the UK, and while plot details remain under wraps, we do know that Redmayne will be joined by Jude Law as Dumbledore, Ezra Miller as Credence, Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein, Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, Katherine Waterston as Tina Goldstein and Mads Mikkelsen as the villainous Gellert Grindelwald.Harry Pottercreator J.K. Rowling is penning the screenplay alongside Steve Kloves, with director David Yates once again at the helm.Fantastic Beasts 3is due to hit theaters on July 15th, 2022. This comes to us fromVariety.
