Shawn Levy Signs On To Direct The UNCHARTED Movie
According to a new report over at Deadline, Sony Pictures has renewed its threat to make an Uncharted movie, and has gone so far as to hire Real Steel director Shawn Levy to make it happen. They've got a screenplay, too.
Here's the news:
Sony Pictures has set Shawn Levy to direct Uncharted, the long-awaited live-action feature film based on the PlayStation video game series featuring the treasure hunter Nathan Drake. Joe Carnahan, who wrote the most recent script draft, had an eye to direct, but he has moved over to focus on helming Sony’s Bad Boys For Life, the action comedy that reunites Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
And here's the commentary: Hollywood's been trying to get an Uncharted movie off the ground for years now, to the extent that it's hard not to think of the project in the same terms as "another Crow movie" or "an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series". That said, we were similarly skeptical about Hollywood's ability to actually produce a Dark Tower movie, and they eventually made that happen (we think). Point being: sooner or later, Sony's persistence was bound to pay off.
Now, is an Uncharted movie a good idea? I'm not sure. Depends entirely on what they do with it. I've played through - and loved - all of the Uncharted games, and it's undeniable that they're all very cinematic and exciting and gorgeously-produced. But as is the case with any video game adaptation, it's hard to say whether or not removing player agency will remove most of the fun from the property. I love playing as Nathan Drake, cold-cocking hench-chumps and swinging around on ropes, but do I care to see, I dunno, Nathan Fillion doing the same for 90 minutes? Ehhhh.
The good news, of course, is that Joe Carnahan's scripting. That's encouraging. Shawn Levy is a perfectly fine director with an eye for spectacular set pieces, so he's not totally out of his element here (when David O. Russell and Mark Wahlber were attached to this movie, I was way more concerned). So, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Next step's casting, and we'll keep you informed on that front as updates roll in.
