The ups and downs of turning the instant classic video game BioShock into a successful film adaptation are continuing right along. It’s being reported that Universal has chosen Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to replace Gore Verbinski as director on the movie.

Excitement encased the world of geekdom when it was first revealed that Verbinski would be directing the water-heavy BioShock after his impressive water work on the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Verbinski actually stepped away from the proposed fourth Pirates flick in order to helm the challenging video game adaptation. When a swelling price tag ($160 Million) saw the project placed on the back burner in order to figure out a new, more cost-friendly attack strategy, it became apparent that shooting in an overseas location might be the best option. Verbinski, having other projects going on, was unable to meet the scheduling demands, and thus, stepped away.

Now that Universal has a new director, it’s fair enough for those who were thrilled for the movie to regain excitement. Myself, being a massive fan of BioShock, am going to withhold reaction for the time being.

Fresnadillo has only one well-known movie under his belt: the zombie horror movie sequel 28 Weeks Later. He also has an Oscar nomination for this 1997 short film Esposados to help his case. Such a small amount of previous work to show makes me really nervous, but the man does seem to have talents, so it’s all pretty much just an “expect the worst, as with all video game movies” situation, and if it ends up being amazing, we all win!

One other note: Fresnadillo is currently in-talks for this project. He is officially Universal’s choice for the job, but Take-Two Interactive still has the right to veto a director choice, so it wouldn’t be completely out of the question for them to tell Universal to keep looking.

[Source: Variety]