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For a long time, Hollywood looked to books for “fresh” movie material. After a while, they turned to comic books, graphic novels, television shows, cartoons… and finally video games.

It stands to reason that movies based on video games will hit box office highs, especially given the video game industry’s particularly impressive recent performance—the industry made a whopping $2.63 billion dollars on video games and gaming consoles in November 2007 alone, not including the $243 million made on gaming accessories. Unfortunately, Hollywood often relies on games’ pre-existing popularity to boost box office numbers, pushing for quick production and failing to adequately flesh out video game story lines.

The next video game up for slaughter? The Xbox 360 hit BioShock. A single-player science fiction game released in August 2007, BioShock is an underwater odyssey that takes place at the bottom of the 1960s Atlantic ocean. Players travel through the game’s underwater landscapes and battle to save creepy little girls while injecting themselves with radioactive material that gives them supernatural powers. Pretty kick ass, right?

Although an awesome game, BioShock ultimately has even less potential than the recent video-game-based-flop Hitman, which grossed only about $21,000,000 in its opening weekend. According to sources like Joystiq, the cinematic adaptation of BioShock will utilize green screen techniques in order to create the game’s beautifully dilapidated scenery. This means that BioShock, if made, will rival the intensely controversial look of Zack Snyder’s Spartan epic 300, although it’s highly doubtful that it will come close to rivaling 300‘s massive popularity and impressive box office performance.