The worldwide coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the entertainment industry, leading to delayed production on movies like Matt Reeve's The Batman and shows like Netflix's The Witcher. Adding onto the deluge of these delays, Sony Pictures has announced that pre-production on their upcoming Uncharted movie will be halted for six weeks.
Filming on Uncharted, which stars Tom Holland as a young Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as his mentor Victor "Sully" Sullivan, was set to begin next month in Berlin according to Variety, but "execs felt it was best for the safety of all involved to delay the shoot indefinitely." They say it is currently unclear if this will impact the film's current March 5, 2021 release date.
The latest delay is one of many bumps the film adaptation of Naughty Dog's popular video game franchise has faced since it lost its first director David O. Russell in 2011. This January Uncharted was pushed from a December 2020 release after it lost its sixth director, Travis Knight of Bumblebee and Kubo and the Two Strings fame.
It seemed like Nathan Drake's silver screen venture was finally back on track earlier this month. Zombieland and Venom director Ruben Fleischer was tapped to helm Uncharted while Antonio Banderas, Sophia Ati, and Tati Gabrielle joined the film's cast to play currently unannounced roles. Fleischer was Sony's top choice following Knight's departure due to scheduling conflicts with Holland's ongoing role as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Spider-Man.
The film's leads, Holland and Wahlberg, have also actively been talking about the movie adaptation as part of its ongoing marketing. Wahlberg said Uncharted reminds him of Indiana Jones, which makes sense given the two franchises share protagonists who are world-galavanting treasure hunters that tend to uncover the mythical origins of sought-after objects and places.
Not long ago it was revealed that Naughty Dog has plans to adapt one of its other popular series, The Last of Us, into a television show with HBO. With The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann and Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin as its head writers, the show has a promising future. However, it is yet to be seen whether production on the show will fall to the wayside because of coronavirus concerns like the Uncharted movie.
Uncharted is currently set to premiere in theaters on March 5, 2021.
Source: Variety