Eighteen years after Universal picked up the rights to BioShock in May 2008, director Francis Lawrence says the long-gestating Netflix adaptation is finally moving toward the camera.

Speaking exclusively to The Direct's Pierre Chanliau during the press junket for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, Lawrence confirmed he remains 'definitely active in it' and that the team is 'getting there, and we're getting close, which is great.'

Dark Horizons, The Playlist, comicbook.com, comingsoon.net and MovieWeb all picked up the interview the same day, a sign of how starved fans are for any word on a project Hollywood has failed to launch through Verbinski and del Toro-era attempts.

Lawrence's stated obstacle is the game itself: 'you are the character when you play the game,' so the film must create a protagonist from scratch inside a world he called 'pretty batshit in a most amazing way.'

The 2007 game's lead, Jack, is a deliberately silent blank slate whose famous 'would you kindly' twist depends on the player not questioning why they follow orders.

MovieWeb argues that trick lives entirely in the space between player and controller, so a movie must either invent a new lead or find a cinematic equivalent for interactivity.

comingsoon.net reads Lawrence's comments as suggesting the film will tell an original story with a new protagonist rather than simply following Jack. comicbook.com notes that recreating Rapture's Art Deco architecture and Big Daddies may actually be the easy part.

According to comicbook.com, Gore Verbinski got further than anyone: Universal acquired the rights in 2008 and he teamed with John Logan on an ambitious R-rated version that was reportedly weeks from shooting before budget concerns killed it, with leaked concept art later revealing intricate Rapture designs.

comicbook.com also reports Verbinski said he and Logan had worked out how to include both endings from the original game.

The Playlist notes Guillermo del Toro was briefly attached and later recalled a 'disastrous call' that scrapped his take, while Dark Horizons notes the dark, likely R-rated tone combined with costly elaborate sets repeatedly sank the project.

That history makes Lawrence's claim that a solution is near genuinely notable rather than routine development talk.

The other hurdle Lawrence named candidly is 'the Netflix of it all,' because the streamer 'has had regime changes and just all of that kind of nonsense.'

MovieWeb details the turbulence: Netflix cut roughly 6% of its workforce, replaced chief content officer Bela Bajaria with former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice, and then ousted film chief Dan Lin days later, with Rice overseeing film until a successor is named.

MovieWeb cautions that new regimes tend to re-litigate expensive inherited projects, though nobody has suggested the film is actually in danger.

Lawrence told The Direct he hopes it won't affect production and that he'd love nothing more than to make the movie, while thanking his stars he wouldn't have to deal with that kind of nonsense himself.

Even if the script clears its hurdles, Lawrence told The Direct that which film shoots next is 'like horse races,' hinging on where the script is, actor availabilities and seasonal shooting windows.

He has also just boarded a Red Rising adaptation at Paramount, reuniting with former BioShock co-writer Justin Rhodes, per Dark Horizons, which lists Michael Green and Justin Rhodes as penning the BioShock script.

Asked whether BioShock would follow Sunrise on the Reaping, Lawrence only said 'you never know.' MovieWeb frames it plainly: even surviving the reshuffle, BioShock must win the scheduling lottery against a competing dystopian epic.

Producer Roy Lee has confirmed the film will draw from the original 2007 game rather than its sequels, according to comicbook.com.

comingsoon.net points out Lawrence must give the main character a distinct voice while preserving the game's twists and horror aesthetic.

The timing matters too: MovieWeb observes video game movies have finally figured themselves out, with Mario and Minecraft clearing a billion dollars, Fallout and The Last of Us proving the prestige-TV model, and the Zelda film now shooting.

A BioShock that finally cracks Rapture would be the medium's hardest literary adaptation earning its prestige treatment at last.