UPDATED: Sony Targeting ‘National Treasure’ Vibe For Uncharted Movie

UPDATED:  An update comes through for this movie from an obscure, but official source.  Sony’s Official Playstation Magazine in the United Kingdom (June issue) has confirmed that the company is still moving forward with an Uncharted movie adaptation, despite some negative rumblings in the past few months about it being stuck in limbo.  The magazine says Sony is now convinced that the best way to go for the movie is to follow the vibe of the National Treasure series.

Obviously that was a very light hearted trekking series.  Which figures, because so is Uncharted.  But I was hoping they would have said Indiana Jones instead, which is basically what Uncharted is.

PREVIOUSLY: While Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystall Skull was upsetting (a few) fans when it came out, around the same time a big budget cinematic game was released that successfully riffed on the original Jones trilogy. The Uncharted series was Indiana Jones with thumbsticks. So it isn’t surprising to hear a movie is being made.

The Sony Hack however has revealed that it might not all be good news.

WikiLeaks Editor-in Chief, Julian Assange, published thousands of files on Thursday from the hack, one of which being an email from Sony executive Adam North sent to Amy Pascal and other Sony executives about the current plans for the Uncharted movie.

“The first half of UNCHARTED is great, and the movie will be a really fun summer adventure film like the Lara Croft movies (with a little bit of Dan Brown thrown in). However, I fell off a bit at about the point where Drake finds the map in the coffin and has to go to London. The rest of the movie still speeds along in terms of plot, but it’s here where the character work kind of loses steam – I don’t believe that Eve would go on this worldwide chase without more motivation than pride and a one night stand, and I stopped caring about Drake. He still lacks a level of humor and cleverness that would make the dusty material he’s talking about more exciting. Drake needs to have more aching questions about his past and where his family comes from so that this discovery that he’s related to Francis Drake has personal meaning for him. Right now it’s a surprise, but it doesn’t feel emotional.

Also, the pseudo-science of the movie comes in too late. We need to allude to this mysterious element that can morph people into monsters earlier somehow, otherwise there’s a big tonal difference in the third act.”

Anyway, Oscar Winner Mark Boal (Zero Dark Thirty) will direct the feature film adaptation, or at least he was the last name officially pegged. Oh and Guardians of the Galaxy hero Chris Pratt was offered the role of Nathan Drake (but passed).

One of the pitfalls of a game adaptation is that directors are often called in who have never touched the source material and go off and do their own thing. The man originally pegged to direct, David O. Russell, did such a thing, when he caused a minor furore by coming a concept for a movie that was completely alien to the series, but still called Uncharted. Worse, Russell wanted to hire Mark Wahlberg as Nathan Drake (the lead character). Russell departed from the project unceremoniously after fan uproar, and, (please God) took wooden pest Wahlberg with him.

An interesting question is, who could play Drake? A lot of people have been clamoring for Nathan Fillion (good choice), but some time ago while watching The Freezer, a coarse movie about a man kidnapped by Russian mobsters, I noticed that Dylan McDermott was a dead ringer for Nathan Drake. What about him? At any rate, let’s hope they don’t fuck it up and count our lucky stars that Paul W.S. Anderson did not get a phonecall.  These were (are) good games.  Looking forward to this year’s trilogy remaster on PS4, and next year’s fourth game.

Dylan McDermott