Why The Uncharted Movie Took 10 YEARS To Film
Uncharted looked to be a quick win for Sony in 2008. Good lord, were they wrong.
If good things come to those that wait the Uncharted movie should change the landscape of cinema completely, if not the very fate of the world. In millennia to come, they’ll be heralding this groundbreaking piece of cinematic delight as the cultural touchstone of the modern epoch. It’ll be the thing that, not unlike the music of Bill and Ted’s Wyld Stallyns, brought peace and utopic reality to the globe.
You may be asking yourself why? Well, it’s because the Uncharted movie has taken twelve years, six (more on this later) directors, and a glut of cast changes to even get close to filming. Surely the premise of Nathan Drake, a modern Indiana Jones with a Nathan Fillion flair for pun delivery, can’t be that hard to transfer from PlayStation to screen. Therefore, it stands to reason that what will be eventually delivered will have a bigger impact than we all could have foreseen.
With an imminent announcement of the seventh (and final, maybe) director due, let’s consider what has happened over the last ten plus years.
2008 - Sony Announce The Uncharted Film
In 2008 Avi Arad was revealed as the producer of the Uncharted movie. At the time this was to be an adaptation of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, the popular PlayStation 3 game which had released the year previously.
2010 - David O. Russell Is Announced As Director
In 2010 David O. Russell was attached as director and writer of the script. He brought in Mark Wahlberg, although this was an unpopular choice at the time, with many players hoping to see the aforementioned Fillion in the titular role. At some point, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci were reported to be in talks to star. In this reimagined version of Uncharted, Sully would be upgraded from mentor and partner of Drake to father, and the tale would have involved an uncle - roles De Niro and Pesci would fill respectively.
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