“Uncharted”: Why was the live-action film delayed by 14 years?

Although the “Uncharted” movie produced by Sony Pictures has been released in North America on February 18, 2022, it has been 14 years since the project was launched.

Based on the popular PS exclusive series, this action film tells the story of treasure hunter Nathan Drake.

The live-action film was first proposed in 2008, but a series of problems during the shooting caused the film to bounce for a long time.

This article will briefly describe each of the difficulties encountered in the process of “Uncharted” film from project to final release.

Related Post: ‘Uncharted’ starring Tom Holland announced to go live digitally on April 26.

2008: film project

The first game in the “Uncharted” series, “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune,” was released in 2007, while Avi Arad, the producer of the “Spider-Man” movie at Sony Pictures, started in 2008.” Uncharted” film project.

The film will be written by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (who have worked on “Conan the Barbarian‎”, “Dylan Dog: Dead of Night‎” and other films), and will be written by Allard with Charles Roven and Alex R . Hibbert co-producer. Starting with this team, several teams came and went one after another during the adaptation of the “Uncharted” movie.

2010: New writer and director

In 2010, the “Uncharted” film project seemed to have taken a big step forward, with three producers Arad, Rowan, and Jartner launching with David O. Russell (“The Fighter‎”, “American Hustle‎”) The latter will serve as the screenwriter and director of the film.

At this time, the game “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” had just released in 2009 to great acclaim, further raising the expectations for the movie.

There has been a lot of discussion around who should play the lead role, with many fans supporting action actor Nathan Fillion as Drake.

Although Fillion didn’t get the role in the end, fans were able to see him as Drake in a 2018 “Uncharted” short film.

Eventually, actor Mark Wahlberg landed the role of Drake, and there are rumors that Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci will play Drake’s father and uncle, respectively.

After years of bouncing tickets, Mark Wahlberg finally left the project, and he returned to play another role in the final version.

2011: Another new director

In 2011, Russell dropped out of “Uncharted” to direct the critically acclaimed and Oscar-nominated “Silver Linings Playbook‎”.

As for why Russell didn’t make it to the end with “Uncharted”, we’re all familiar with the reason for that: differences in creative ideas.

In an interview with the media “The Hollywood Reporter”, Russell stated that his concept did not match the studio’s expectations for the film.

“When I’m involved in the production of these blockbusters, I create my own ideas, and when I feel like I’ve built the version of the film I envisioned, the rest is up to other people’s opinions.

I can’t help them decide and I don’t know what they’re doing. The reason it was difficult to collaborate was purely because of differences in ideas. “

After Russell left the project, the three producers Arad, Rowan and Jatner hired Neil Burger (representative of “The Illusionist‎”) to replace Russell in writing and directing. Grid completely rewrote the script. This coincides with the release of the game “Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception,” which took the series to a whole new level, while the film of the same name continued to stumble and stumble on its way to production.

2012: Another change of personnel

In 2012, Borg left the “Uncharted” film to film “Divergent‎”. He was replaced by husband and wife duo Marian Webley and Cormac Webley (“National Treasure”, “Bad Boys II‎”), and the Webleys were asked to rewrite the screenplay, which later proved to be a mistake decision.

2014: A more unexpected bounce

In 2014, the “Uncharted” film project kept coming and going.

Seth Gordon (“The King of Kong‎”, “Identity Thief‎”) has been named director of the new “Uncharted” film, while David Guggenheim (“Stolen‎”, “Safe House‎”) takes on the lead Screenplay creation.

The producers seem confident in the film and plan to start filming in 2015 and release it on June 10, 2016.

But by the end of 2014, Mark Boal (representative of “The Hurt Locker‎”, “Zero Dark Thirty‎”) replaced the Guggenheim.

Meanwhile, with Mark Wahlberg no longer playing Nathan Drake, they reportedly wanted to leave the role to Chris Pratt (“Guardians of the Galaxy”), but he declined the offer.

2015: More puzzles

In 2015, after the scandalous Sony hack led to a Guggenheim-written script being leaked online, Sony Pictures’ new chairman, Tom Rothman, decided to make staff changes and let the film go. Move to a more mature style that is closer to the original game.

Gordon therefore resigned as director, to direct “Baywatch”.

Unable to catch up with the 2016 release date, the production team pushed the release date of “Uncharted” to June 30, 2017, a year later.

2016: Little hope

2016 was a year of transition for the “Uncharted” film project. This year, the film set the final release version, but the film still encountered other problems before it was released.

In 2016, the screenwriter became Joe Carnahan (“Smokin’ Aces‎”, “The A-Team‎”), and the director was Shawn Levy (“Night at the Museum‎”, “Real Steel”) .

At the same time, Naughty Dog also released a new series of works “Uncharted 4: A thief’s end” this year.

2017: Stalled for unknown reasons

In 2017, the project was still going well, and while Carnahan was finishing the script, Tom Holland, the star of the “Spider-Man” movie, was officially cast as Nathan Drake.

The plot of the movie is basically a prequel to the game, and Holland will play the young Drake who has just started his career as a treasure hunter.

Meanwhile, screenwriter Rafe Judkins (“The Wheel of Time”, “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) was hired during the year to rewrite the script.

2018: A bumpy return

In 2018, Shawn Levy quit his job as a director to direct “Free Guy”. The “Uncharted” movie, while still in production, faces a situation where no one is at the helm.

2019: New Hope

In 2019, Dan Trachtenberg (“10 Cloverfield Lane‎”) took over the hot potato as director of the “Uncharted” film, though he withdrew from the project later that year. He was replaced by Taravis Knight (“Kubo and the Two Strings‎”, “Bumblebee”), who also left the project shortly after due to scheduling conflicts.

These circumstances led Sony to delay the release of the film again (the date given at the time was December 18, 2020).

In an interesting twist of fate, Wahlberg is back in the film, now playing Drake’s bearded father, Victor Sullivan.

From Wahlberg, who used to play Drake, to now playing the protagonist “Old Father”, it is obvious that the “Uncharted” film has a long time span in the production process.

2020: The ‘Uncharted’ movie is really on the way

In 2020, the “Uncharted” movie is finally officially in production. The director also switched from Knight to Ruben Fleischer (“Venom”), who worked on the project until the end.

Sony plans to release the film on May 5, 2021. It was revealed that the plot of the film was inspired by “Uncharted 4: A thief’s end”.

In terms of cast, Antonio Banderas plays the villain Moncada, Tati Gabrielle plays the villain’s female mercenary, and Sophia Ali plays Drake’s ambiguous partner and companion Chloe.

In addition, two writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway were hired to rewrite the script again, and Ramin Djawadi (for “Iron Man”, “Game of Thrones”) was responsible for the film’s soundtrack.

But the filming schedule has been affected by the most unfortunate contingencies in recent years – the outbreak of the new crown epidemic has interrupted the progress of film production and brought the entire entertainment industry to a standstill.

In the end, with sufficient safety and security, filming continued, but Antonio Banderas had to leave the set for three weeks after contracting the new crown halfway through.

2021: The last bounce

In 2021, the “Uncharted” movie released its first long-awaited trailer, and also announced a new release date: February 18, 2022.

2022: It’s finally here

After the entire crew has undergone many personnel changes, the film cast and crew is finally settled. Charles Roven, Alex R. Hibbert and Avi Allard are co-producers, and the script is based on the writing of Rafe Judkins, Jon Hanley Rosenberg and Mark D. Walker, and then by Judkins, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway The three were adapted.

Now, the live-action “Uncharted” movie has finally been released.

Related Post: “Uncharted” Review: Compared to the game, the movie is slightly better, full of excitement.