Uncharted, the acclaimed, top-selling adventure video game franchise, has been sitting on the movie adaptation backlog of Sony Pictures for several years. Previously circled by a wide and diverse array of would-be stars and directors, the project is seemingly taking shape with Tom Holland set to star.
The Uncharted movie will be based off a script by Rafe Judkins and the duo of Art Marcum & Matt Holloway. Previous script iterations involved names such as Jonathan Rosenberg and Mark Walker, as well as David Guggenheim, Eric Warren Singer and Joe Carnahan.
Sony has high hopes for the film, having expanded its production team, bringing in recently launched movie/television arm PlayStation Productions. Yet, as auspicious and/or intriguing as Uncharted seems, especially with the Spider-Man star as headliner, the project continues to experience delays and directorial shake-ups.
Uncharted Movie News
The Uncharted movie’s game of director musical chairs will continue with the exit of its most recent helmer, Travis Knight, according to Deadline.
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Knight, who came into the project off a recent directorial effort in the Transformers spinoff movie, Bumblebee, was named director for this film back in September, making him the sixth individual to have been attached. However, he won’t be the last, since the report explains that star Tom Holland is temporarily putting Uncharted aside to focus on the untitled third Spider-Man film (scheduled for July 16, 2021), creating a schedule conflict for Knight, leaving him unable to remain onboard.
Consequential to these two events, it appears that Sony will be pushing back the release date of Uncharted from its current December 18, 2020 spot; a sensible measure seeing as it’s January 2020 and the film has yet to shoot a single frame.
Knight was preceded as attached director by Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane), who stepped down back in August 2019. Of course, they followed numerous would-be directorial predecessors for the project, which first entered the pipeline a decade ago in dramatically different form. Indeed, it first took shape in 2009, with David O. Russell attached to direct, with Mark Wahlberg headlining a cast consisting of Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. The ensuing years saw the directorial attachments of Neil Burger, Seth Gordon and Shawn Levy.
Further Reading: Tom Holland Reportedly Saved Disney-Sony Spider-Man Deal
Uncharted Movie Release Date
The Uncharted movie is currently scheduled to arrive on December 18, 2020. However, with star Tom Holland’s latest Spider-Man prospects leading to yet another directorial vacancy, expect a date shift or even a schedule pull altogether.
Uncharted Movie Cast
Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Far From Home) is set to star as Nathan Drake, an explorer and treasure hunter who journeys to ancient ruins for both trinkets and answers to humanity’s biggest mysteries. Along the way, he shoots lots of bad guys.
Uncharted Movie Story
Here’s a short synopsis of the film:
“A descendant of explorer Sir Francis Drake, a treasure hunter named Nathan Drake believes he has learned the whereabouts of El Dorado, the fabled South American golden city, a cursed golden statue. the search becomes competitive when a rival hunter joins the fray.”
Producer Charles Roven also revealed to Deadline that the movie is actually an origin story for Nathan and his friend Sully:
We’ve come up with a wonderful origin story but it’s still based on the Uncharted video game. It doesn’t take place during any of the time period of any of the Uncharted video games. It actually takes place when Nathan Drake (who’s the lead of that game) and Sully, I guess you’d call him his surrogate father, were much younger. It’s an origin story that evolves out of the game but is not from the game.
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John Saavedra is Games Editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9.
Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.