After some pandemic-related delays, the Uncharted movie is back in production in Berlin. Some of Tom Holland's fans, tweeting at @ThollandNews, have shared some candid photos from the set, which provides an early, albeit unofficial, look at how the film is going and what to expect from it. Holland, who plays Nathan Drake in the film, was spotted doing a scene on the street with Mark Wahlberg.
However, despite the fact that Wahlberg is playing Victor "Sully" Sullivan in Uncharted, he's unaccountably dapper and clean-shaven in the set photos. Hopefully, it's a scene in which he's forced to shave due to the con that Nate and Sully are running. Otherwise, the absence of Sully's iconic mustache, as well as the fact that Wahlberg is not smoking or wearing a bowling shirt, is an unforgivable departure from the source material. Hopefully, the mustache will be added in post, the same way that Henry Cavill's was taken out for Justice League. Maybe CGI is the only way to adequately capture the dark glory of Sully's mustache. Fingers crossed.
Jokes aside, Holland took to his Instagram on September 13th to talk about how well he thinks the production is going, as well as his love for the Uncharted franchise. As one might guess due to the casting of Holland, who is 24 but could play 12, the Uncharted film is a prequel to the game series, taking place at an early point in Nate and Sully's partnership. According to Holland, speaking earlier this year to IGN, the film is heavily inspired by the plot of Uncharted 4.
In addition to Holland and Wahlberg, Uncharted stars Sophia Taylor Ali (Faking It, Truth or Dare), Tati Gabrielle (The 100, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), and Antonio Banderas (Once Upon A Time in Mexico, Desperado) in unnamed roles. IMDB reports that Ali plays Chloe Frazer, Nate's sidekick/love interest/antagonist (or, to summarize, Nate's Catwoman) who was first introduced in Uncharted 2, but take that with a grain of salt. It would make sense and be smart casting if Ali, who is Pakistani, is playing Chloe, who was established to be Indian on her mother's side in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, but IMDB entries for upcoming films are often full of unlabeled fan speculation.
Plans for a live-action film adaptation of Uncharted have been making the rounds in Hollywood since 2008, with multiple directors and writers becoming briefly attached to the project before inevitably dropping out. It seemed like Uncharted, much like other high-profile adaptations like Halo once were, might have been permanently stuck in development hell.
What seems to have finally tipped the scale is the involvement of PlayStation Productions, formerly known as PlayStation Originals, a Sony-owned subsidiary made to adapt the company's video games for other media. Its previous films include 2014's Heavenly Sword and 2016's Ratchet and Clank; other reported projects on the PSP docket include the planned The Last of Us series for HBO.
Even then, however, the Uncharted film has been notoriously disaster-prone. It was originally planned for a December of 2020 release, but lost its first two directors – Dan Trachtenberg and Travis Knight – over the course of 2019. Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) later joined Uncharted as the new director in January of 2020, working from a new script by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Iron Man, Punisher: War Zone).
However, just as principal photography began on Uncharted in Berlin in March, it was halted thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming resumed in July, though Banderas was forced to leave the production temporarily in August, after he caught and subsequently recovered from COVID.
Assuming that the cast and crew can finish work on Uncharted without further disaster, the film is currently scheduled for a theatrical release on July 16th, 2021.
Source: Tom Holland News/Twitter