Uncharted ($337 Million Worldwide Box office)

Sony has recruited Joe Carnahan to write the latest draft of the script for its adaptation of the popular video game “Uncharted.”

Carnahan, who is also an accomplished director and producer, told Variety that he’s unable to also helm, unless production is pushed back, due to schedule constraints. “Bad Boys 3” will be his next directing gig. Production on the sequel gears up early next year — after Will Smith wraps David Ayer’s “Bright.”

“In a perfect world I would love to do both, but right now, I’m only on board to write the script,” he said.

“Uncharted” is an action-adventure film based on the critically-acclaimed and top-selling PlayStation video game series, which follows the adventures of treasure hunter Nathan Drake.

Carnahan said entering the world of Nathan Drake is a dream come true.

“Archaeology today is in itself an antiquity, but that world has always fascinated me. Especially when you go to a museum today and wonder how a piece got there to begin with,” he said. “Plus, the property itself is so popular that it was hard to turn down an opportunity to work on it.”

The film will be a co-production between Arad and Atlas Entertainment Production, and will be produced by Charles Roven, Avi Arad, Alex Gartner, and Ari Arad. Sony creative exec Jonathan Kadin is overseeing the project.

The video game series was developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America.

In addition to directing “Bad Boy 3,” which reunites Smith and Martin Lawrence, Carnahan is also developing and producing the Frank Grillo-starrer “Wheelman” for Netflix.

UltimateMarvel wrote:We've seen this before. No, until we have a director and cast, this movie isn't happening. Then again that happened too with Wahlberg so........until we see a trailer I guess. lol

Shawn Levy To Direct ‘Uncharted’; Now On Fast Track

Sony Pictures has set Shawn Levy to direct Uncharted, the long-awaited live-action feature film based on the PlayStation video game series featuring the treasure hunter Nathan Drake. Joe Carnahan, who wrote the most recent script draft, had an eye to direct, but he has moved over to focus on helming Sony’s Bad Boys For Life, the action comedy that reunites Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Uncharted is an Arad/Atlas Entertainment Production, with Charles Roven, Avi Arad, Alex Gartner and Ari Arad producing.

Levy has been busy executive producing and directing episodes of the Netflix breakout series Stranger Things, and he’ll direct several more episodes in Season 2 while casting up a film that has long been seen as a big global franchise play for the studio. Levy also produced the upcoming Denis Villenueve-directed Arrival, which stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.

The video game was developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America. The fourth iteration of the game, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, was released in May. Columbia exec veep Jonathan Kadin will oversee the film.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Damn it, no! He's already Spider-Man and a grown up Nathan Drake is more interesting. That's where the first game starts, why go back?

Shawn Levy is directing a film that will take its inspiration from a sequence in the third iteration of the video game that focused on the young thief Drake, and his first encounter with the professional rogue, Sullivan.

This reformulation of the franchise was an inspiration of Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman after seeing the latest cut of the Spider-Man film, sources said. The studio has tried for years with various directors to get this video game to launch a franchise, with past scripts from Joe Carnahan, David Guggenheim and Eric Warren Singer.

UltimateMarvel wrote:You could hire any young actor for that role in the third film. Way too early to be doing his backstory but we'll see how this turns out. After Assassin's Creed, you have to worry when they start changing things. This is how it starts....

ForeverBlu wrote:Well, at least it won't be Chris Pratt.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Tom is a great actor, I first saw him in The Impossible and he was terrific in that. There wasn't a lot of flashbacks in the third one, not enough to make it a full movie but we'll see. Most of the stuff happens when he's older and out there adventuring.

WyldeMan wrote:

ForeverBlu wrote:Well, at least it won't be Chris Pratt.

Pretty sure Nathan had an as yet to be cast, older brother named Sam in Thief's End.

In a new interview with Yahoo about his upcoming starring role in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tom Holland also briefly fielded a couple of questions about his next potential franchise. In addition to answering how he came onboard Uncharted, he also shared his thoughts about who would be perfect to play Sully, the mentor to the movie’s young hero. Uncharted doesn’t currently have a release date, though with Shawn Levy set to direct from a Joe Carnahan script, and with Holland set to star, expect news on this front sooner than later.


Here’s the tale of how Uncharted came to be an origin story, as Holland tells it:

“It’s an exciting one. Didn’t know much about it. It sort of just came, it was a conversation I had with [Sony’s] Tom Rothman about the potential of different movies that I’d like to work with with Sony and I just had the idea that maybe a young Nathan Drake would be something that audiences would be very interested in. I met [director] Shawn [Levy] at the MTV awards and we had a brief chat about the potential of doing an origin story rather than copying what the games have done and it seems like people have been really excited about it, I know I am. I’m excited to have some further conversations about it.”

And here’s Holland fancasting the role of Sully, Nathan Drake’s mentor. I’m sure you’re going to have opinion on this one:

“I think Jake Gyllenhaal could be really cool, but I actually went to the Jurassic World film set the other day to visit my friend who is directing it and Chris Pratt is on that film, who I have become very good friends with over the last few months, and I think he would be a great Sully. I think it could be cool, because if it was an older movie I would say that Chris should play Nathan, but I think he would be a good Sully and I love working with Chris.”

Because sometimes dreams really do come true, Nathan Fillion just made his wise-cracking, peril-escaping debut as Nate Drake, the star of the Uncharted video game series. Because life is also cruel and often unfair, Fillion’s performance is completely unofficial and unaffiliated from Naughty Dog or Sony, taking place in a 15-minute fan-film directed by Allan Ungar and written by Ungar and Jesse Wheeler.

But Uncharted diehards have almost everything they could’ve asked for right there in Ungar’s short film. Fillion is as spot-on as advertised as a Drake quipping his way through a brutal beating and video game physics firefight. Joining the fun is Stephen Lang—on loan from filming the next 14 or so Avatar films—as Drake’s cigar-chomping partner-in-crime Sully and Episodes star Mircea Monroe as the treasure hunter’s badass photojournalist wife Elena.

No, Firefly’s Nathan Fillion wasn’t teasing his casting in the long-coming Uncharted movie, but announcing one of his own, secretly adapting the video game series with Allan Ungar and Stephen Lang back in May — having sat on the idea since January. Now it’s out on YouTube, all 14 minutes of it racking up the views and fulfilling dreams. And that might not be the last fans hear of it.

Now, according to an interview Fillion and Ungar gave to Entertainment Weekly, there could actually be a future for Fillion’s unofficial version of the treasure-seeking Nathan Drake.

Asked about the future of their involvement with the Uncharted series, Ungar said, “If Sony… I actually got a couple emails today, I’m not gonna say from who, but there’s definitely people talking about what this could mean as a digital series or something further. Obviously there’s interest in there, and I think if it makes sense and if it’s done right, I’d be thrilled to have a conversation about it and possibly see this specific story continue.”

Some of that goodwill may be helped by the game’s developer, Naughty Dog, being as enamored with the project as the rest of us. Neil Druckmann, the most recent games’ director, tweeted out his appreciation for Fillion’s hunt for the lost treasure of the Flor de la Mar.

A digital series could be done directly for Naughty Dog — depending on the rights agreement hammered out already with Sony. But if the studio is a fan...the shoulder holster could feel right at home for a few more adventures — even if they’re celebrity commercial spots promoting the next game. The fan film has already been viewed more than 1.4 million times in just over a day, so there's clearly some interest in seeing Fillion in the role.

Fillion and Ungar are clearly fans of the game, and that love shines through in every frame of this short. From the fight-style (which they directly based on Nate's moves from across the four-game main series, creating a fight-clip for reference), to the treasure hunt at the heart of the story (Ungar says he anchored the concept in real history, mixed in with a healthy dose of fiction, just like the games).

UltimateMarvel wrote:He is literally the character brought to life. lol Or the character is based on him, either way it works. Stupid Sony, fucking listen!!!

Travis Knight To Direct Tom Holland In Sony’s ‘Uncharted’

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures is negotiating with Travis Knight to direct Uncharted, the Sony Pictures film adaptation of the massive selling PlayStation game. Tom Holland remains attached to star and has been squarely in the mix in the discussions for Knight to come aboard after Dan Trachtenberg exited. The film will begin production early next year.

Knight directed the Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, and Kubo and The Two Strings. He cut his teeth as lead animator for stop-motion animation studio Laika, on films that have included Coraline, The Boxtrolls and ParaNorman. Bumblebee was his live action directing debut.

Charles Roven and Alex Gartner are producing for Atlas Entertainment and Avi Arad and Ari Arad for Arad Productions.

Scripted by Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and Rafe Judkins, the Uncharted film has a story line that captures the protagonist as a young man, as he grows into the treasure hunter Nathan Drake. The video game series was created by Naughty Dog and published by PlayStation and has sold over 41 million copies to date. The film will become the first feature production of Sony PlayStation Productions, which was set up on the Sony lot last year by Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan. They will be executive producers.

Mark Wahlberg is in final talks to co-star with Tom Holland in “Uncharted,” Sony’s upcoming adaptation of the hit video game.

Travis Knight (“Bumblebee”) is directing the movie that follows Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter who journeys across the world to uncover various historical mysteries. Wahlberg will portray Victor “Sully” Sullivan, an American treasure hunter, fortune seeker and businessman, as well as a friend, mentor and father figure to Drake. Holland is set to play Drake.

Ironically, Wahlberg was originally on board to play Drake years ago when David O. Russell was first directing an adaptation. With Sony transforming the project into an origin story, Wahlberg wanted to return to the movie in some capacity.

Rafe Judkins is penning the script with the team of Art Marcum and Matt Holloway.

The gaming series, which began in 2007 with “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune,” was created by developer Naughty Dog and published by PlayStation. It has sold more than 41 million copies to date.

Charles Roven and Alex Gartner are producing the film through Atlas Entertainment, as well as Avi Arad and Ari Arad through Arad Productions. Sony’s PlayStation Productions — headed by Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan — will also have a hand in producing. Qizilbash and Swan will serve as executive producers on “Uncharted,” the first true partnership between PlayStation Productions and Sony Pictures.

“Uncharted” continues a busy year for Wahlberg, who stars next in Netflix’s thriller “Wonderland and A24’s family drama “Good Joe Bell.” He is currently in production on Paramount’s fantasy movie “Infinite.”

Tyger wrote:Well, that’s some bullshit

UltimateMarvel wrote:You've gotta be kidding me.

Director Travis Knight has left the long-awaited Uncharted movie. Tom Holland's Spider-Man scheduling has thrown a monkey wrench into the production, though Holland and Mark Wahlberg are still attached to star.

It is believed that Sony will be pushing the Uncharted release date back and then looking for yet another director to come on board. As of this writing, no new release date has been set and it is not clear when the production on the movie will actually begin, though it won't be able to start until after this summer.

In addition to Travis Knight, Uncharted has had David O. Russell, Neil Burger, Seth Gordon, and Shawn Levy all attached to direct at some point or another over the years. The movie was set into active development back in 2008 and was first publicly announced in 2009 with Russell set to direct and Mark Wahlberg attached to star. Wahlberg was originally set to play the lead character Nathan Drake, but the role has now gone to Tom Holland. Wahlberg is now set to play Sully, who is Drake's mentor in the video game franchise.

Tom Holland is set to play Peter Parker again this summer in the sequel to Spider-Man: Far From Home. This is the scheduling conflict that forced Travis Knight out. While Sony is still intent on putting Uncharted out, the Spider-Man franchise takes precedent, especially since the last installment is the studio's highest grossing movie of all time. Expectations for the sequel are high after the cliffhanger ending and fans are excited to see Sony and Marvel Studios working together again. For a while, it looked like their partnership was over, which would have made the next movie pretty hard to pull off.

Now, fans of the Uncharted franchise have to be more than a little disillusioned with this situation. Travis Knight seemed like a great choice to finally bring the movie to the finish line. But, now it's back to the drawing board to find a director willing to take on a project that has been in development hell for so long and passed on to so many other writers and directors. It's pretty similar to Sony's approach to the long-awaited Masters of the Universe movie, which now might end up being sold to Netflix after years and years of development.

Whatever the case may be, Sony is intent on the sure bet with Tom Holland and the Spider-Man franchise. There have even been talks about the young actor taking on a cameo in the studio's upcoming Venom 2. This has yet to be confirmed, but the studio is making some good money off of its Marvel properties and that aspect shows no sign of slowing down at the moment. For now, Uncharted fans are going to have to sit back to see if the movie ever sees the light of day. Deadline was the first to report on Travis Knight leaving the Uncharted movie.

UltimateMarvel wrote:I hope Mark drops out too.

WyldeMan wrote:Knight is the SIXTH director to have dropped out of this project.

I say let it rest.

A couple weeks after Deadline reported that Ruben Fleischer was atop the list to direct Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg in Sony Pictures’ Uncharted, and the race was on to keep the pic on track to shoot before the next installment of Holland’s Spider-Man, the studio changed the release date of the Columbia Pictures actioner.

The studio said late Friday it has pushed Uncharted from its December 18, 2020 release date to March 5, 2021. The three-month shift was one of several moves noted by Sony, which also tonight undated its Noah Centineo-starring Mattel pic Masters of the Universe. That pic, which originally had a December 2019 release eyed, had most recently been in the March 2021 slot now occupied by Uncharted.

Uncharted has had a long ride, most recently with Travis Knight late last year exiting as director over scheduling issues. The action-adventure based on the PlayStation video game has been a Sony priority even after a number of directors came and went. The current draft of the screenplay is by Rafe Judkins and the Iron Man team of Art Marcum & Matt Holloway.

Other moves tonight by Sony including slight shifts in the release dates of TriStar’s Clea DuVall-directed romantic comedy Happiest Season starring Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis (back five days to November 25, 2010) and the Kevin Hart-starring Fatherhood from Columbia (back a week to January 15, 2021).

UltimateMarvel wrote:As you say Wylde, it's best to just KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!

Sony has finally released the first trailer for its upcoming live-action movie adaptation of Uncharted, the popular and acclaimed video game adventure series. The movie has been in development for years now, with the earliest reports about a movie adaptation stemming from 2008. This current iteration of the project has been in the works since 2017, and finally, finally, we're getting our first trailer to Uncharted.

Uncharted stars Tom Holland as a young Nathan Drake, with Mark Wahlberg playing his (now mustache-less) mentor, Victor "Sully" Sullivan. Venom's Ruben Fleischer directs the film from a script by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (who also wrote Iron Man and... Transformers: The Last Knight), which is set to act as a prequel to the action-adventure games from Naughty Dog Studios and creator Amy Hennig.

The film also stars Tati Gabrielle (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) as Braddock, Sophia Ali (Grey's Anatomy) as Chloe Frazer, and Antonio Banderas in an unidentified role. This is but the first of possibly many Sony games being turned into live-action projects. There's The Last of Us being turned into an HBO series, while Netflix has both a live-action and an anime series based on the Assassin's Creed franchise in the works, as well as both anime and live-action TV shows based on Resident Evil coming to streaming in the near future.

I'm really torn on this trailer. Sony went with Tom Holland in part because of his youthful appeal even though in the games Drake is in his mid-30s to early-40s. And from a financial perspective that makes sense. If you think this is a long-term franchise, then you cast the hot young star who has already proven himself with the Spider-Man movies. But as a fan of the games, this feels off to me. Holland just feels too young for the role so while everything around him kind of feels like Uncharted, it feels like he's cosplaying as Drake. But keep in mind that someone who hasn't played the game (which is the majority of the audience that Sony expects for this movie) doesn't have my associations with Drake, so they'll probably be fine with Holland. I hope to be proven wrong.

Uncharted has been delayed many times, but for now it is slated to be released in theaters on February 18, 2022.