Brakes put on Bioshock movie

Now accepting that the track record of turning videogames into movies hasn't been very good at all - and we struggle to think of one example that could garner more than a three star rating - there's still the small matter of Bioshock to consider. For here's a game that positively aches for a quality movie adaptation, and in the right hands, the world of Rapture could make for blockbuster gold.

Thus, we can't have been the only ones really quite pleased to discover that Universal - fresh from turning the mooted Halo movie into turnaround - was looking to develop a feature film based on Bioshock. It then went and hired director Gore Verbinski (most famed for the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, of course, but do hunt down his excellent Mouse Hunt if you get the chance), and things looked to be sailing forward.

Until, that is, Universal opened up its latest spreadsheet.

For what's happened now is that the budget for the project has reportedly spiralled to in excess of $160m, and that's caused the studio to have second thoughts. It's understood, according to Variety, that the production has been shut down, while Verbinski and Universal try to find a way to make the picture more affordable. Bioshock had been due to start shooting this year.

Knowing our luck, we'll get Max Payne 2 first...