Uncharted Is Re-Charted: Fan Boys Groan As Video Game Adaptation Gets G-Force Writers

'Uncharted' Movie Gets New Writers

On paper, adapting the video game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune to the big screen looks like a no-brainer.  In the character of Nate Drake, you essentially have a young Indiana Jones, who escapes a creative array of baddies and one tight scrape after another while tracking down the golden statue of El Dorado. So why can't Hollywood get this baby on the screen? 

Variety reports that Limitless director Neil Burger — who took the helm of the movie last year after David O. Russell (The Fighter) left the project — has departed as well.  Instead of bringing a new director on board,  Dark Knight franchise producer Charles Roven's Atlas Entertainment and  Spider-Man producer Avid Arad'sArad Productions have hired Marianne and Cormac Wibberley to rewrite the script. Once they have that in hand, they plan to hire a director.

The Wibberleys wrote the crowd-pleasing National Treasure movies and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, but the groaning you hear out there is coming from  some of the game's incredibly passionate fans who are looking over the screenwriting team's other credits and deciding that they don't like what they see.  Much of the wincing is over G-Force, a cutesy movie the Wibberleys wrote about a special forces team of guinea pigs.

The fans of Uncharted do not want cutesy. They even bristled when Russell was talking about incorporating a "family dynamic" into his adaptation. (That said, I really wanted to see Russell make this movie. He proved with The Fighter that he can make an thrilling movie with fully fleshed characters.)

The fans of Uncharted want to see the game's off-the-hook stunt pieces recreated on the screen with the taut, storytelling of the Bourne movies.  Oh yeah, and they really seem to want Castle star Nathan Fillion to play the role of Drake.

Is that such a difficult challenge?

[Variety]

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Comments

  • SD says:

    Uncharted: the movie... here you go:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61Rho1tmnvk&feature=player_embedded

    Was that so hard? It even comes in under 2 hours. 🙂

    If they kept to the story of the first game I think it would make a good film. You would need to seriously reduce the amount of gunplay to prevent Drake from being a mass murderer (and maybe expand some of the puzzles) but the basics are all there.

    And as much as I love Fillion I think he is getting too old for the role. I would be happy with Chris Evans though. He's my pick.

    • lorelei neitzel says:

      We have a fan film in the making titled: UNCHARTED: BROKEN FAITH a spin off creation based on the Uncharted Series with a new character and a new adventure for all time fan favorite, Nathan Drake. We see that youʼve given some digital ink to news revolving around the game or creators and weʼd love to get in on that action.
      Since this is a non-income generating project, kept strictly for the festival audience, we would love your support in any way. This is a FAN film. This game has millions of fans around the world, but we need help to spread the word. We plan on using the Kickstarter platform to raise money for the film and want to attract fans in droves to donate and bring this project to life.
      We will of course make sure to include a link to your work, so our viewers can easily find you on the Interwebs. Hopefully this means that some of our love will head your way, vis a vis streams from what we release. Here are a few places you can find us online:
      http://www.uncharted-the-movie.com
      Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/unchartedmovie Twitter @uncharted_movie

  • I like Evans. I think he'd make a better Drake than he does Captain America.

  • WM says:

    I was actually thinking Bradley Cooper could make an interesting Nathan Drake. Chris Evans would be cool, but I'm not sure I'd want him to play Drake. He doesn't have the voice (because hair and eyes can be altered to match Nathan's, but the voice can't).

  • lorelei neitzel says:

    We have a fan film in the making titled: UNCHARTED: BROKEN FAITH a spin off creation based on the Uncharted Series with a new character and a new adventure for all time fan favorite, Nathan Drake. We see that youʼve given some digital ink to news revolving around the game or creators and weʼd love to get in on that action.
    Since this is a non-income generating project, kept strictly for the festival audience, we would love your support in any way. This is a FAN film. This game has millions of fans around the world, but we need help to spread the word. We plan on using the Kickstarter platform to raise money for the film and want to attract fans in droves to donate and bring this project to life.
    We will of course make sure to include a link to your work, so our viewers can easily find you on the Interwebs. Hopefully this means that some of our love will head your way, vis a vis streams from what we release. Here are a few places you can find us online:
    http://www.uncharted-the-movie.com
    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/unchartedmovie Twitter @uncharted_movie