Director of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy Gore Verbinski, will be returning to the sea, but in a different kind of way, as he has signed up to direct the game to movie adaptation of BioShock. It is believed to be the biggest game-to-movie deal since 2005, when Universal and Fox signed onto the Halo movie, which is still not moving forward.

Variety report:

“Bioshock” takes place in an underwater city based on the free market principles of Ayn Rand, but things have gone disastrously wrong. Players control a pilot who crash-lands at a secret entrance to the city, called Rapture, and is drawn into a power struggle during which he discovers that his will is not as free as he’d thought.

“I think the whole utopia-gone-wrong story that’s cleverly unveiled to players is just brimming with cinematic potential,” said Verbinski. “Of all the games I’ve played, this is one that I felt has a really strong narrative.”

Though no release date has been set, Verbinski said he plans to start pre-production as soon as Aviator writer John Logan’s script is finished and approved.

BioShock has sold more than 2 million units worldwide since its release in August 2007 and has been praised for its morality-based storyline, immersive environment and Ayn Rand-inspired dystopian setting. A sequel to the game, BioShock 2, is planned for a release in 2009.