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Uncharted movie to reach theaters on June 10, 2016
Uncharted hero Nathan Drake will officially make his silver screen debut on June 10, 2016, according to Sony Pictures. According to Deadline, that release date was originally earmarked for The Amazing Spider-Man 3, but the studio has decided to delay that film to 2018. "June 10 is a great date for Uncharted," said Doug Belgrad, president of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group. "It's just the right place for this exciting action-adventure film." Despite this newly-revealed launch date, the Uncharted film has yet to cast an actor for the role of Nathan Drake, though Deadline believes Sony is once again trying to persuade Mark Wahlberg to sign on. As we reported earlier this year, King of Kong director Seth Gordon has been tapped to helm the adaptation, though, knowing Hollywood, there's still plenty of time for that to change. [Image: Sony]
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.
Uncharted series recut into movie form
The Uncharted series is a few dramatic zooms and giant blue people away from being a true Hollywood movie, and now it's one step closer to the silver screen experience. Redditor morphinapg has cut together the cinematic cutscenes from all three Uncharted titles to create three separate feature-length films.Morphinapg used a minimal amount of gameplay to connect the cutscenes, and voila, we have a movie series that anyone – at least 180,000 on YouTube – can enjoy."With these projects I was trying to make movies that would be viewable whether or not you had played the game, or even care about playing video games, so I wanted to make them as close to a real movie as possible," Morphinapg wrote. Watch the first fan-made Uncharted movie above, and the following two here and here.
Once upon a time, Uncharted was a Tolkien-inspired fantasy romp
The Uncharted franchise began as a whimsical fantasy story, but that dream was crushed by the cold, hard AK-47 of reality -- Sony pushed a change in direction after seeing the success of "gritty shooters" on Xbox 360 and ordered Uncharted: Drake's Fortune to be more "realistic," Don Poole, a former Naughty Dog environment modeler, told Play. One discarded concept involved a forest with an underground city of antagonists: "It had elements of Tolkien in for sure," Poole said. "Sony kept pushing for a more realistic game in all respects. The market had changed a lot by then. The demographic was older and gritty shooters were really dominating. Sony wanted very much to get into that market share, it pushed all of its developers in this direction." Poole said some of the "old dogs" at Naughty Dog preferred the fantastical style of its previous titles, such as Jak and Daxter and Crash Bandicoot, "but alas, that was a losing battle." Technically we wouldn't call selling 8 million series copies worldwide "losing," but that can be a relative term.
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]
Uncharted, Resistance, and Ratchet & Clank bundles out in Europe July 22
SCEE has confirmed an Uncharted collection, for those European PS3 owners looking for a fast-track method of catching up with the Uncharted series. The publisher told CVG that on July 22, it will release a collection containing Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, along with a dynamic theme and an avatar. The same day will see a European release of the Resistance bundle (coming to North America July 5), which packs the first two games in that series and a Resistance 3 skin. Also out on July 22 in Europe: a Ratchet & Clank bundle containing Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time, with bonus avatars and a Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One dynamic theme. No announcements were made about the Uncharted or Ratchet bundles in North America, but CVG's line of inquiry did begin with the discovery of the Uncharted collection on Best Buy's US website.
David O. Russell responds to Uncharted movie fan concerns
David O. Russell is currently making headlines as the Academy Award-nominated director of The Fighter. But gamers are probably more interested in one of his next projects: a silver screen adaptation of the Uncharted series. The numerous changes made to the core story have some fans concerned that Russell simply doesn't get it. Responding to those accusations, Russell told SlashFilm that he's "played the game a bunch of times" and has even met Naughty Dog's Amy Hennig. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm very respectful as far as the core content and spirit of the game." Russell argues that "there's not a bunch of movies you can point to that are made from games that are amazing movies, that stand up to time as a franchise or as [individual films]." By focusing on "what I think is going to be an amazing movie," Russell says that "it's going to be real, it's going to be raw, it's going to be intense, it's going to be original, and it's going to be propulsive." (And he apparently doesn't know who Nathan Fillion is.)
Russell still writing Uncharted flick, talks picks for Elena
The push-and-pull saga of the Uncharted film adaptation continues, as David O. Russell has informed Empire Online that he's still working on the script (despite reports to the contrary). He also reaffirmed that he wants both Mark Wahlberg and Robert De Niro to star in the film. Speaking of the film's female roles, Russell noted that he has "cultivated" the character of Elena "quite a bit." Said Russell, "I love the woman characters and the more robust they are, the more robust the movie." When asked if Amy Adams would fit the role, Russell stated that he would "love" her in the part (Adams recently worked with Russell on The Fighter). Another name mentioned by Russell: One Scarlett Johansson. Of course, Russell seems to be overlooking the obvious. One word: Streep. Come on David, she's box office gold!
David O. Russell talks about his vision for the Uncharted movie
We're gonna deliver this news quickly, like the hasty removal of a Band-Aid: David O. Russell's Mark Wahlberg-fronted Uncharted film adaptation isn't off to an awesome start. After Wahlberg confirmed his involvement last week, Russell spoke to the LA Times about his vision for the film, saying: "This idea really turns me on that there's a family that's a force to be reckoned with in the world of international art and antiquities ... [a family] that deals with heads of state and heads of museums and metes out justice ... We'll have the family dynamic, which we've done in a couple of movies now. And then you take that and put it on the bigger, more muscular stage of an international action picture, but also put all the character stuff in it. That's a really cool idea to me." Russell added that the pace at which the film's development is moving along is "a locomotive," and that he's already penned about half of the script -- meaning there's plenty of time to just like, sit back, spend some time with the two already very movie-like Uncharted games, and just like, reevaluate some stuff. Specifically, all of that stuff you said right there, about a family that doles out justice to museum owners. That whole ... part. Everything. All of it. As a fun experiment, we added some other, totally made-up quotes about other film projects Mr. Russell (O'Russell?) might be interested in. Join us!
Report: David O. Russell back on board for Uncharted movie
Director David O. Russell has had a very on-and-off relationship with the film adaptation of Naughty Dog's Uncharted series -- in that he was once on the film, and then he was off of it. According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, Russell has signed back on to the film as director, temporarily sidelining his other upcoming project, a film remake of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Dude's got taste when it comes to his choice of projects, we'll give him that. The report doesn't mention whether or not Russell's rejoining of the crew means the film will make its initial 2011 release window. Nor does it mention whether our heart's wish will come true, and get Charlie Sheen to star as the series' ill-tucked protagonist, Nathan Drake. Think about it! He's perfect.
David O. Russell off Uncharted movie, 2011 release unlikely
David O. Russell, director of Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees and Spanking the Monkey, is no longer being considered for the job of directing the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune movie. The LA Times reports that Sony-owned Columbia Pictures, the movie's producers and Russell were unable to reach terms satisfactory to all parties, and now the studio has to start looking for directing talent once again, while also searching for lead actors. The Times' Steven Zeitchik speculates that the delay caused by the lost director scuttles any chance Sony had of having the movie done in time for a 2011 release. At this rate, it'll probably coincide with the release of Uncharted 4: Baby Drake's Crystal Crawl. That's right, we're calling it now: Naughty Dog's going to change up the gameplay with a tale from Nate Drake's infancy.
