So it doesn’t look like that big-screen BioShock movie is ever going to happen, but if you’ve ever wanted to see a live-action film set in the game’s underwater city — really bringing Rapture to life and capturing its spirit — then 6-minute short film New Year’s End is for you.
Its director is Jared Potter, a hardcore BioShock fanboy, who says he was compelled to make his short film because the world of Rapture “left and impression on me unlike any game I’ve ever played.” New Year’s End tells the story of New Year’s Eve 1959 in Rapture, before the events of the first game. As players know, when you first descend to the city of Rapture and begin playing BioShock, you discover that this supposedly utopian society has fallen apart (to put it mildly). New Year’s End skillfully shows us what is probably the first spark of that world’s end.
It’s brilliantly done, with beautiful visuals, high quality FX, artful cinematography, and haunting sound and music. The hardest part of any BioShock film would be depicting the essence of Irrational Games’ blissful-utopia-gone-mad, but Potter’s film makes it look easy.
Ken Levine, dude… get this guy on the phone now.