Limitless Director Neil Burger To Seek UNCHARTED: DRAKE'S FORTUNE

Rather than let the video game adaptation of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune die after previous director David O.Russell turned in a bizarre 200 page script that focused heavily on original characters and situations that had nothing to do with the game itself and which inevitably saw his take on the property dismissed, Sony are pushing swiftly ahead on a new direction with a replacement helmer found today. Variety say Neil Burger, director of The Illusionist and most recently Limitless, pitched an idea of his own that producers Ari Arad, Charles Roven and Alex Gartner approved of and Uncharted is a go-project once again. Presumably Burger's pitch was a movie that would resemble the video game somewhat and also fullfilled Sony's desire for an Indiana Jones style adventurer that would be one of their major hits of 2012 or more likely 2013. There's no word yet if Mark Wahlberg, who is O. Russell's new muse and who probably boarded the film heavily on the idea it would be the next collaboration with his director of The Fighter, Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees, is still attached but we imagine he will stay loosely interested as the project develops. The outlook will certainly be clearer once a script enters his hands and then he will need to decide whether he really wants to do it. Reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark €“ the video game finds Nate Drake, a descendent of explorer Sir Francis Drake on the trackdown for the fabled El Dorado city in South America where he must battle mutated creatures of Nazi/Spaniards to uncover the true secrets & treasures of the lost city. Bags of potential in an adaptation but how many times have we said that about video game films down the years? Neil Burger's having a good time of things right now. His modestly budgeted Bradley Cooper/Robert De Niro thriller was one of the surprise success stories of the year, taking in almost $80 million worldwide and easily crossing the $150 million mark worldwide. Box office receipts like that usually open doors and so it would seem as he prepares to embark on his first real blockbuster and which Sony will want to have deep into production by the time the next Uncharted game is released in November. Come to think of it and we aren't the first ones to mention this but wouldn't Bradley Cooper, with his suave and cocky persona, be a great fit for Drake if Wahlberg was to depart? Hmm... I'm sure that's what Burger is thinking himself too. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is certainly a cinematic video game begging for this kind of adaptation. Let's hope Burger can realise it for the screen.