2016 wasn’t the year for video game movies that many movie lovers thought it would be, but there is plenty of hope on the horizon. One of the longest-running glimmers has been Sony’s long-in-developmentUncharted movie, and after years of false starts, the project just got one massive step closer to reality.Joe Carnahanhas officially finished the script, meaning that the movie should be on track to actually go into production this year.
The director ofThe Greyand the upcomingBad Boys 3recently took to hisInstagramto reveal the finished script forUncharted. Not only is he done with the script, but he seems incredibly confident in what he was able to get down on paper, which is a good sign. Here is what he had to say about it.
“Now the REAL work begins. If there’s a more monstrously cool action script in Hollywood right now, I wanna read it, ‘cuz this thing is a BEAST.”
One could argueJoe Carnahanis being overconfident, but that is a whole lot better than the alternative. Unfortunately, because of his other commitments, he won’t be able to directUncharted, but that won’t be an issue. Sony has tappedShawn Levy(Real Steel) to finally bring the character of Nathan Drake to the big screen. So with a script finally done and a director in place, theUnchartedmovie looks like it may finally be getting made. That doesn’t guarantee it will live up to the promise and actually be good, but the hope is alive.
The movie will still have some other hurdles to overcome before the cameras get rolling. Sony recently tookUnchartedoff their release schedule, but once they got this current creative team working on the project, the ball really seemed to get rolling and it is expected that production will start this summer. That means they will have time to find the perfect Nathan Drake. Over the years, plenty of actors have been attached to the role and finding the right person is going to be critical. In the early days,Nathan Fillionwas the fan favorite but he has sort of aged out of starting his own action franchise of this nature. Most recently,Mark Wahlbergwas reportedly attached back whenDavid O Russellwas going to directly. However, he recently made it clear that, at least for now, he isn’t attached to the part. So maybeBradley CooperorChris Prattwill be getting a phone call from Sony soon.
Hollywood has still yet to crack the code when it comes to making a decent video game movie, despite having a lot of great material to work with. Last year, two truly great games were given the big screen treatment and failed to live up to the potential that existed in them.Warcraftdid go on to become the highest-grossing video game movie ever made, but it failed with critics and many casual moviegoers didn’t seem to respond.Assassin’s Creedalso bombed in a big way, despite having the star power ofMichael Fassbender. The movie has tanked at the box office thus far and was absolutely panned by critics. But prior to their release, many felt these would be the movies to finally break the curse that seemingly surrounds video game adaptations.
Now, that burden will fall to a movie likeUncharted, which also has a big fan base and some great source material to work with. Sony has an allegedly great script fromJoe Carnahanto work with and a director inShawn Levy, so hopefully, this movie can get made and be the great video game movie we all hope it can be. There isno new release dateforUncharted, but with production ramping up we should be getting casting news and a new release date very soon.
