A short while back we thought we had the green light on BioShock’s production – Gore Verbinski was discarding the Pirates 4 project and everything looked set to go. Shortly after Universal put the project on hold because of spiraling budgets of +£160m.

Now Verbinski tells the LA Times:

The bottom line is [BioShock] has to shoot out of the States for budget reasons and my schedule may be prohibitive. There’s a great script and a really interesting cast. It really comes down to the financial model now. Big movies are just not being shot in the States. I’m weighing whether I can physically go the U.K. or Australia or one of those other places with a tax rebate for a year-and-a-half.

It’s now highly questionable that Gore Verbinski will eventually helm the BioShock adaptation.