There have been attempts to turn Naughty Dog’s Uncharted franchise into a live-action movie for about as long as the franchise has existed. Obviously these have yet to pan out, thanks to numerous delays, but the project’s producers remain hopeful that the Uncharted movie will be released next year, and its star, Tom Holland, recently took the opportunity to not only express his excitement for it but discuss how the movie relates to the games as well.
It’s been assumed that since the 23-year-old Holland is set to play as Uncharted’s treasure-hunting protagonist Nathan Drake, the Uncharted movie will be set before the events of Naughty Dog’s games, which feature a noticeably older Drake. Talking with IGN recently, Holland confirmed as much, and this, he said, is one of the reasons he’s optimistic about the Uncharted movie despite its long, problematic history.
In general, video game adaptations rarely tend to be a hit with movie-going audiences. Although a few have managed to break this trend, like last year’s Pokemon: Detective Pikachu and this week’s Sonic the Hedgehog movie, they usually struggle to attract fans outside of their franchise’s already-established fanbase. This is a problem that Holland believes Sony can address with Uncharted, because it’s going to be a brand new experience for everyone, fan and non-fan alike.
“I think what Uncharted offers that most video games films don't is that it's an origin story to the games,” he said. “So if you played the games, you haven't seen what's going to happen in the film. And if you haven't played the games, you're going to enjoy the film because it's information that everyone else is getting at the same time. But I'm super excited to make that movie and it's been a long time coming.”
Furthering Holland’s confidence in the project is the latest script from writer Joe Carnhan, which he praised as “one of the best scripts I've ever read,” adding, “It really, really jumps off the page.” He also took the opportunity to praise his co-star Mark Wahlberg, who has been cast to play Drake’s mentor Victor “Sully” Sullivan. “I think Mark Wahlberg's going to kill it as Sully and it's going to be a lot of fun,” he said.
Originally slated to come out on December 18 this year, the Uncharted movie was recently delayed, due to scheduling conflicts for Holland and his role as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man. This led to the departure of Travis Knight, the sixth director to be attached to the project. Uncharted is currently without a director officially, but rumor has it that Sony is considering Venom director Reuben Fleischer for the role.
Uncharted is scheduled to release in theaters on March 5, 2021.
Source: IGN