Tom Holland’s video game adaptation seems to be cursed.
The very first Uncharted video game came out in 2007, and a movie adaptation has apparently been in the works since 2008.
It makes a certain kind of easy sense, as the story of a modern-day Indiana Jones, a male raider of tombs, would be a very easy sell for a big screen adaptation.
But, for some reason or another, it is over a decade later and we’re still waiting on this movie.
In October 2010 we got our first officially signed director, when David O. Russell (Three Kings, The Fighter) said he had Mark Wahlberg, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci signed on for the main roles.
By May 2011, he had dropped out (quickly followed by his cast), and in July of that same year, it was reported that Neil Burger (Limitless, The Upside) had replaced him.
By August 2012, Burger had dropped out, and in February 2014, Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses, Baywatch) was the third director officially attached to direct.
Jump forward to June 2015, and Gordon was gone. It was October 2016 before the next director, Shawn Levy (Stranger Things, Night At The Museum), was announced.
It was also around this time that it was revealed that the movie wouldn’t be a direct adaptation of the games as fans knew them, with lead character Nathan Drake set to be much younger in the movie (enter Tom Holland), and his tomb-raiding teacher Sully set to potentially be played by Chris Hemsworth or Matthew McConaughey.
Levy hung around longer than anyone, but by December 2018, he too was off the project.
Then in January 2019, Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane, The Boys) was the fifth director signed on to the project.
In June, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that the movie had a set-in-stone release date for cinemas: 18 December 2020.
And then this week, Trachtenberg announced he had stepped away from the movie.
So… what gives?
Well, just about every director has cited creative differences”, and it is probably for the best that Sony don’t want another bad-movie-based-on-a-video-game hitting the big screen, especially when it comes to something like Uncharted, which should be a very easy win.
At the moment, Deadline reports that Sony is about to name a replacement for Trachtenberg, as they still want the movie to go into production in early 2020, but that December 2020 release seems unlikely now.
Still though… sixth time’s a charm?
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