Francis Lawrence, director of Netflix’s BioShock movie, opened up to IGN about his favorite video games of all time, and we have to admit that he knows ball.
You might know Lawrence from his work on the Hunger Games films. He’s directed almost every single one of them, after all, most recently lending his talents to the upcoming prequel film Sunrise on the Reaping, which hits theaters this November.
With a slew of blockbuster adaptations under his belt, Lawrence is now helming the live-action BioShock movie at Netflix — a project that’s nearly 20 years in the making. Given he’s a self-professed fan of the series, we had to ask about his favorite games of all time.
“Well, the big ones for me were Metal Gear Solid, BioShock, and Call of Duty,” he answered. “I’d say the original GTA. I don’t think I played beyond the original GTA, but the original one was pretty wild when that came out, the sort of technology of it. But I think those were all kind of my favorites.”
When we brought up the imminent release of GTA 6 — arguably the most technologically advanced game in the franchise and one of the most highly anticipated pop culture launches of all time — Lawrence bemoaned how close the game’s release is to Sunrise on the Reaping.
“Unfortunately, I think it comes out right around the same time our movie does. Hopefully, people find time for both. Play GTA, go see our movie, play more GTA,” he joked.
We got the chance to chat with Lawrence about his BioShock movie, which he said was initially brought to him by Gore Verbinski back in 2009. However, due to scheduling conflicts, he wasn’t able to take the project. Guillermo del Toro was later in talks to direct the film, but “didn’t see eye-to-eye” with the game’s creator, as Lawrence put it.
The version of events that Guillermo del Toro gave to us, however, was far less mild. “We had a very contentious call about a couple of games,” he told us as part of our IGN30 Icons interview series. “…So adapting it, BioShock, we had a couple of calls. They are probably one of the most disastrous calls I’ve ever had. So no, f**k no.”
Lawrence is also gearing up to direct a film adaptation of Red Rising, a young adult book series written by author Peirce Brown. That project, too, has been in development hell, but finally found a home at Paramount and a writer to pen the script.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.