According to a report on Deadline, the upcoming Uncharted movie has landed itself a new director in the shape of Shawn Levy.
Joe Carnahan was previously attached to the project having drafted the most recent version of the film’s script, though he has since moved on to focus on the Will Smith-front action sequel, Bad Boys for Life. Levy is perhaps best known for his work on Stranger Things, the hit Netflix series for which he has served as director and executive producer on. In addition, he’s also producing the upcoming Arrival, starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.
The Uncharted movie is being produced by Charles Roven, Avi Arad, Alex Gartner, and Ari Arad, and will be overseen by Columbia’s Jonathan Kadin. The project has been in the works for a number of years but has suffered multiple roadblocks, chiefly a seemingly revolving door succession of directors and script writers.
Uncharted movie suffers yet another setback, but what else is new?
The original film was due to be directed by David O. Russell, who wished to deviate considerably from the source material and cast Mark Wahlberg in the role of Nathan Drake as the head of a mobster-style family of treasure hunters. This ultimately fell through, and Neil Burger then took over.
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Despite vowing to take the film back to its videogame roots, Burger jumped ship and was later replaced by Seth Gordon. Around this time, it was revealed that the project was planning to start shooting in early 2015 and hit cinemas the following summer. However, this yet again fell through, resulting in Sony delaying the movie until 2017.
Still with us? Good. Following Gordon’s departure, Carnahan arrived to rewrite the script, which was said to be coming along nicely. With a new director now at the helm it’s unknown just when the Uncharted film will see the light of day, though Sony definitely seems keen on getting it out the door despite the constant setbacks. Perhaps Nolan North will cameo?
The Uncharted games, developed by California-based studio Naughty Dog, remain one of the most popular first-party exclusives for Sony, selling over 28 million copies worldwide since 2007.