Looks like the rumor we broke back in January that Hollywood was flirting with the BioShock license was dead-on. Variety reports that Universal has signed a deal to turn BioShock into a movie. Director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) will head the project and Aviator writer John Logan may write the screenplay. Take-Two executive chairman Strauss Zelnick, who was in charge of Fox in the '90s, handled the deal for his company and says the project will actually get made ... unlike the Halo movie.

There's also an interview with Verbinski on Variety's Cut Scene blog where he discusses the project. He believes the movie will be rated "R" and says, in terms of the Little Sisters, that he'll take the issue "right up to the edge," not wanting the core audience to feel "betrayed." Though no release date is currently targeted, Verbinski says he'll start pre-production when Logan's script is finished and approved.

[Update: If there was any doubt as to the validity of this story, Take Two itself just issued confirmation that the movie adaptation of its undersea adventure is indeed in the works.]

While we're often quite protective of our medium – what does some big-shot Hollywood cat know anyways? – Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski delivered a heartfelt keynote speech at this year's D.I.C.E. Summit, asking game designers to "embrace madness" and "to make the suits sh*t themselves."

Now, before you lash out and remind us all that this is the same guy who made not one, not two, but three blockbuster movies based on a theme-park ride about pirates, Verbinski was quite candid about his distaste for the conventions of Hollywood ("he noted that some of his Pirates movies actually had release dates before they got scripts"). Indeed, his speech seemed to be more of the "save yourself" variety, encouraging game designers to "pick up the baton" the film industry dropped some time ago.

GameDaily relays: "He feels that games are an art form and have far more depth than cinema potentially." That we're in total agreement with. It's when he says "Games will eventually elicit emotional and visceral reactions" that we scratch our heads. Alright, unless you cried during Final Fantasy VII you may not have the traditional "emotional" reaction we presume he's imagining but what about fear? Or excitement? Certainly those are emotional reactions games excel at delivering. And "visceral reactions"? Has he ever played a "video game"?

We know he's busy, and maybe that's why he specifically mentioned the first-person genre when bemoaning studios that "phone it in" in a year when first-person shooters excelled – but overall we can't help but get caught up in the excitement and trust that Verbinski has the right message. Now how about some game work, Verbinski? Those Spielberg and Lucas guys are all over it.