Fans waiting to see Uncharted golden boy Nathan Drake appear on the silver screen will have to hold their breath a while longer. Sony's Uncharted movie has been pushed back from December 18, 2020 to March 5, 2021 according to reporting by The Hollywood Reporter Friday.
The film, based on a series of incredibly popular action-adventure titles on the PlayStation 3 and 4 that were developed by Naughty Dog, has tapped Tom Holland to star as professional treasure hunter Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as his wise-cracking mentor Victor Sullivan. However, it has had a much rockier road trying to secure a director.
At the end of 2019, Uncharted lost Travis Knight of Bumblebee and Kubo and the Two Strings fame due to scheduling conflicts with Holland's ongoing gig as Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Knight was the sixth director to leave the project since 2011, when it was under the direction of Silver Linings Playbook's David O. Russell.
Earlier this month Sony expressed interest in hiring Ruben Fleischer, known for the Zombieland series and for helming Sony Pictures' Venom, to take over the Uncharted film. However no official replacement has been announced as of yet, which is a good indication why the studio is postponing its release.
The new March release date for Uncharted takes over what was originally supposed to be the opening day of Masters of the Universe, based on Mattel's toy line, which The Hollywood Reporter says has been removed from their calendar entirely. Though anyone who was looking forward to that project can still expect to see He-Man and The Masters of the Universe as an animated series on Netflix.
It's frankly baffling to imagine that a series as already cinematic as Uncharted could struggle to find its footing in cinema, especially given how beloved the property is. Two Uncharted titles were among the best games on PlayStation Now (based on Metacritic scores) in October 2019.
Then again, so far 2020 has been rife with video game delays including the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and the Final Fantasy VII remake. Perhaps the Uncharted film will be further evidence of Shigeru Miyamoto's words of wisdom that a delayed game is eventually good — even if the worlds of video game and movie development are vastly different beasts.
Uncharted will release in theaters on March 5, 2021.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter