MovieChat Forums > BioShock (2007) Discussion > Casting BioShock!

Casting BioShock!

posted 17 years ago by stonesoundjam
44 replies | jump to latest

[–] dansolo96 17 years ago

Beyond the larger debate about how good a movie would be, as I think BioShock works well as a game, but might not translate into a film that is equally as good (much the same way I feel about Half Life)

However:

Director: David Fincher

Cast (I have not completed the game yet, so this is an incomplete list)

Jack: Guy Pierce
Atlas: Damian Lewis
Andrew Ryan: Christopher Lee
Tenenbaum: Nicole Kidman
Sander Cohen: Kevin Spacey
Dr. Steinman: Peter Stormare

Not that I disagree with the previous list, as some of the choices are very well thought out. What do you think of these?

[–] hybridtheory55861 17 years ago

Im thinking clive owen as jack would be appropriate

[–] stonesoundjam 17 years ago

Jack: Guy Pierce
Atlas: Damian Lewis
Andrew Ryan: Christopher Lee
Tenenbaum: Nicole Kidman
Sander Cohen: Kevin Spacey
Dr. Steinman: Peter Stormare

Not that I disagree with the previous list, as some of the choices are very well thought out. What do you think of these?

Well. Spacey as Cohen really seems on the money. And Stormare is always good playing crazy.

As for the others I don't really know. Guy Pierce seems too villainy to me but that might work in this instance, but I know people who just don't like him for some reason or other. That being said, it might be good in the context of the story.

I figured Cusack because he has a good mix of vulnerability but can also step up as a protagonist. (He was brilliant in Identity)

Lee is menacing but possibly overly so to the point of melodrama, and he is also really old.

Who knows, it could work.

I think it's just a matter of time before BioShock gets made into a film. It's a goldmine of atmosphere and horro storytelling.

Let's hope Uwe Boll or the WS Anderson's of this world don't get a hold on it.

[–] SeriouslyMike 17 years ago

Boll himself said he can't see how to make a BioShock movie in the interview with GameTrailers. We're... um... safe?
And if Anderson can pull off another Event Horizon, there's hope.

Mike Sterling
Stupid movies can be fun...But not all of them.

[–] stonesoundjam 17 years ago

That's like the best news ever...

It's like telling someone they can never catch teh AIDS. I'm not sold on Anderson though..

[–] SeriouslyMike 17 years ago

Unless Boll actually forces himself past the first 15 minutes of the game.
If he's confused after the beginning, then - seriously - what the *!#K does he know about screenwriting?!

Mike Sterling
Stupid movies can be fun...But not all of them.

[–] stonesoundjam 17 years ago

Now with the BioShock movie rumours circulating, anyone wanna take a crack at casting it?

And please, don't say Johnny Depp. Everybody does.

[–] nogoodalias 17 years ago

Liotta for Fontaine is perfect.

[–] Jeremy_X 17 years ago

stonesoundjam, thats an excellent list, totally agree, who would you cast as Bill McDonagh and Diane McClintock? For the former I was thinking of Ian McKellan or John Hurt, but they're too old nowadays.

[–] stonesoundjam 17 years ago

At the risk of getting verbally hammered, I'd say for someone vulnerable and self-pitying like Diane, especially in the early messages left in rapture in terms of sound and mood, I think I'd go Renee Zellweger. She sounds like the Diane in the game and also probably has the chops to play that character well though she's not one of my favourite actresses.

Bill McDonagh is a tough one.He has a bit of a brogue hasn't he?

While I think he may be overqualified to play such a secondary role. I'd say as far as nailing the accent and dialogue, Michael Caine is the only one who comes close to carrying those lines credibly (The Prestige is a good example.)

P.S I added photos (As BioShock-y ones as I could find) to give a better idea on why I poicked so and so..

P.P.S Dansolo96 Your idea for Spacey as Cohen was better than mine so I put him in instead of Day-Lewis

[–] udamandude 17 years ago

what about Josh Holloway (Sawyer from Lost) as Jack?

[–] teneno 17 years ago

david strathairn as Andrew Ryan is PERFECT.

See my DVD Collection at http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=5556236

[–] dub544 17 years ago

seriously, what about James Cameron for directing? the guy is obsessed with water and the deep abyss and i think he'd do a fine job.

[–] Mr_Ofsnart 17 years ago

Good suggestion, dub554, and i agree-you'd need someone like him to bring to life the waterlogged world of Rapture.

[–] vampirehunterD11 17 years ago

I like that cast a lot actually, very nice. This could be one of the best game-movie adaptions, along with just flat out being an amazing film, if it is done correctly.

[–] evans0305 17 years ago

What about Jeffrey Combs? I think his acting from Reanimator would have made him a great Dr. Steinman, but that would be a short role for him. But I do think he could play an excellent Sander Cohen, especially seeing his doctor character with a tux and mustache on the House on the Haunted Hill remake. It's dead on uncanny, especially his voice.

[–] venombyte2002 17 years ago

If only Vincent Price was still alive....I am pretty sure that Andrew Ryan must be made after Vincent Price

At least thats what I got when I first saw Andrew Ryan

[–] madirishman18 17 years ago

I like the idea of john cusack as jack, like one of the posters said before he was great in identity. i also liked him in 1408

[–] epicfailguy 17 years ago

Jack and Atlas at ther moment are tough.

however

Andrew Ryan: Gene Daily(back in the day) or Raul Julia (al la addams family)
Tenenbaum: Franka Potente
Sander Cohen: Vincent Schiavelli (Alas deceased)
Dr. Steinman: Peter Stormare

[–] epicfailguy 17 years ago

IGN made a good point of saying Anthony hopkins would be good for the role of Ryan and matt damon as Jack after a lot of strengthening of the character. .

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[–] stonesoundjam 17 years ago

I dont see Jackman as Jack.

Too action-hero-ey

[–] roli_87 17 years ago

I absolutely love the idea of making Bioshock the movie.

I think the movie should take place before the game, starting in 1946 with the opening of Rapture. It would end with Jack on the plane picking up the giftbox.
All the "flashbacks" and cool diaries would be present of course, but now we'd acctually get to see it taking place, can you just imagine Dr. Steinman at the operating table "You know looking at it now, I didn't realise how much her face... sags... Scalpel."

Just thinking about seeing all these great characters gradually getting more and more crazy makes me all fuzzy inside. Somebody needs to get to work on this!

[–] stonesoundjam 17 years ago

Since we're on the subject.. If anyone should make the film I'd go with WB or New Line. At least they give SOME level of autonomy to Directors that can be trusted.

If it goes Fox's way then we're screwed.

Or edgy Lion's Gate...ooh they make the SAW films...

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] evans0305 17 years ago

I like stonesoundjam's idea of using either WB or New Line for the movie. yet it's a draw between these two studios.
The WB could do it, since most of their era type films look very authentic to the era. BUT, the majority of those films are seen in Dark Castle Entertainment flicks or anything else owned by Joel Silver, so the film might flop if a producer thinks of it as a "Franchise".

New Line Cinema could work, since their studio has some of the best special effects I've seen in a while. BUT, that's all the studio is best known for. Without a good script and the right director and producer, the film can become a pretty but badly scripted rental if a Paul WS Anderson type or a music video director were to film it.

between those two film companies, it might be possible to make the film like the video game.

[–] stonesoundjam 17 years ago

Chris Nolan would own this material and so would his brother for the screenplay..

[–] Bandelero 17 years ago

I'm thinking Tim Burton as director, definitely. Or a collaboration between him and Terry Gilliam would be brilliant for this. :)
After seeing Lucky Number Slevin I'd say Josh Hartnett could probably pull off the lead, but that's about as far as I've got. Tricky coming up with a good cast, I understand why you're often disappointed with adaptations.

[–] Bandelero 17 years ago

By the way, if they ever make a movie I'm hoping it's not 'Bioshock', meaning a copy of the story in the game - that story has already been told in a great medium for what it was. Instead I'd love to see something set in Rapture, perhaps the same premise with an outsider finding it, but not the same. They might have to tweak the story a bit, but that's fine. I definitely think there's a lot of potential for a movie here, and I really hope they don't rush it to milk money off of the franchise, which I do fear might become the case.

[–] stonesoundjam 17 years ago

I agree with you there. Changing or tweaking the story would benefit both the movie and fans of the game who don't want to see the same plot turn out.

In fact I had an alternative story idea to the game.

In my idea, Fontaine would have been dead already on Jack's arrival. By then the person interacting with Jack; Fontaine and Ryan would be the SAME person. It would have been Ryan driven mad by the failure of Rapture, adopting a pseudo-Fontaine identity, turning him into a lunatic schizoid. And while Jack went about on his little tasks, the real puppet master Ryan would have been stealthily engineering the destruction of Rapture, while not knowing he was when he was conscious as Fontaine

Sounds loony but then again it's apt for a storyline like this movie.

[–] SeriouslyMike 17 years ago

I had a different idea - not only Jack, but a handful of other characters survive, among them a CIA agent following Jack in order to locate and eliminate Ryan. The scene where Jack beats Ryan would have been stopped by one of the characters (female character: "Jack! Would you kindly stop?!" with tears in her eyes), but then, the CIA guy shoots Ryan and runs away.

Mike Sterling
Stupid movies can be fun...But not all of them.

[–] ztannoia 17 years ago

I'm dead set on having Ed Norton as Jack. If he was cast, there would be no way that this movie could fail, at all.

I love the idea of Spacey as Cohen.

For Ryan I was thinking Anthony Hopkins or Willem Defoe.

[–] Lord_Pwnage 17 years ago

I think that Gilian Anderson would make a great Tennenbaum.

86% of the world is religious. If you belong to the 14% that is rational, put this in your sig.

[–] horror-lover 17 years ago

if they actually make a Bioshock movie, they'd better get the voices right because Andrew Ryan, Atlas and Fontaine all have incredible voices and it would ruin the movie for me if they didn't talk the same way they did in the game.

[–] spaceghost44 17 years ago

The movie would have to be different than the game and alot of the side characters would be cut. I think they should leave most of the radio out because that would get annoying and uninteresting if that was how the characters communicated throughout the whole movie. I have some other ideas, but I forgot.

My name is Jim.....but my friends call me.....Jim.

[–] stonesoundjam 17 years ago

bump.

[–] JEGV 17 years ago

What about Jerry Stiller as Sander Cohen?

[–] Constantine_Octavian 16 years ago

come on people, i think Adrien Brody would make an excellent Jack.

Geoffery Rush sounds like a good choice for Andrew Ryan too