• Posted March 26th, 2012 at 05:56 EDT by Mike Harradence
• 2 Comments

The planned movie adaptation of BioShock has found itself in choppy waters yet again following the departure of director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.

Speaking with IndieWire, Fresnadillo revealed that he’s no longer involved with the project, which he was set to direct alongside producer Pirates of the Caribbean maestro Gore Verbinski.

"To be honest, by now, I'm completely out of that, and developing other stuff," he said. "Right now it's on hold. The studio and the video game company, they have to reach some kind of agreement about the budget and the rating."

The BioShock film was unveiled back in 2008 but has been plagued by numerous logistical issues ever since.

April 2009 saw Universal Studios demand that Verbinski slash the movie’s $160 million budget, and in February last year, the project stalled again when the producers failed to find a studio willing to back an R-rated version of the flick.

Verbinski commented around the time that he wasn’t willing to compromise his “really, really scary” vision for the movie for the sake of more commercial appeal. “I couldn’t really get past anybody that would spend the money it would take to do it and keep an R rating,” he said.

The next instalment in the BioShock videogame franchise, BioShock Infinite, is due out in October 2012 for PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360.

Stay tuned to PSU.com for more details.