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Uncharted movie loses director, gains 'National Treasure' writers
Marianne and Cormac Wibberley, the screenwriting duo behind the National Treasure movies (along with Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and the story for Bad Boys II) are signed on to do a rewrite of the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune movie script, which seems just a bit on the nose.The news is from Variety, who also reports that Limitless director Neil Burger is no longer attached to the project, with a new choice pending completion of the script. Hopefully Arad Productions can find a director who's worked on movies about dudes hunting for ancient treasure, because that's apparently the criterion.
Neil Burger hits restart on the Uncharted film
Director Neil Burger just so happened to be promoting the DVD release of his movie Limitless at Comic-Con last weekend, and though most of the folks who spoke with him were from movie media, Joystiq sneaked in to grill Burger about his next project: the in-development Uncharted film. "I'm rewriting the script from scratch, starting like right now -- like we are just starting now," he said. "I love the game, it's great, and I think it's a great start for a movie, because the game is so cinematic," Burger added, before zeroing in on one object of cinematic admiration. "The character Nate in particular I like because he's this ballsy guy that lives by his wits, and who's capable of kind of anything and everything. He's fearless and he doesn't give a damn and he'll go after the thing. I dig that kind of character and it's a great character for a movie." Mark Wahlberg was rumored to be playing Drake under previous director David O. Russell's oversight. Burger suggested that while both Wahlberg and Limitless star Bradley Cooper could probably both pull the role off in their own ways, the decision of who will wear the half-tuck and jeans is still distant. "Once you get to the end of the screenplay," he said, "you see who's available, who seems right, who's a new actor that's just breaking on that's not even on your radar right now." Burger agreed there are plenty of good choices to go around, however: "There's a lot of actors who even look like Nathan Drake from the video game who could do it and who would be great for it, so we'll see." Burger wasn't aware of Nathan Fillion's run at the part, but we'll consider him officially back in the mix anyway.
Neil Burger starting from scratch with Uncharted movie
Let's just move past the first draft of the Uncharted movie, shall we? We'll forget any jabs about a family of justice-dealing art thieves we might have prepared. We've no quarrel with former Uncharted director David O. Russell. We'll even put The Fighter in the ol' Joystiq DVD queue right now. Now, having said that, Neil Burger seems to be on the right track with the new adaptation of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The director told Collider that he's just signed on to the project, and is rewriting the whole script. Like all the best Burger art, he said it's being made "from scratch." He added that he likes the game's characters, noting that he knows men like Nathan Drake (so do we), "guys that are living in a very different way and who are slightly hustlers or con-men." He also noted that he would pull as many of the big moments from the game as possible, so long as they "work into the film's story." "I just think you have to make the best movie you can," said Burger, "Something like Indiana Jones was updating 1930′s B-movies." Yes, Neil. Yes. [Thanks, Trevor]
Neil Burger is now cooking up the Uncharted movie
Many fans of the Uncharted series flipped when director David O. Russell said he planned to turn the film version of the games into a story about a family of art thieves. Sure, gaming fans having beef with a game movie isn't so rare, but we relished the news that Russell left the project in late May. After what seemed like a major setback, Sony wasted no time playing ketchup: Meat the new writer and director of the Uncharted movie, Neil Burger. Not familiar? Lettuce bring you up to speed: Burger is perhaps best known in the film medium for his work as the director of Limitless, a recent Bradley Cooper picture about a man addicted to a pill that makes him a genius. (The film also starred Patricia Kalember, "Patty" to her friends). It's unknown whether Mark Wahlberg will remain in the starring roll, but, for what it's worth, we think Burger's last leading man would be a fine fit, especially if he mustard up the charisma required to play Drake. Sounds like it could be a well done film to us, we'll grill them on it and let you know what we hear.
