The big screen adaptation of the video game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune has found its way through a couple of director's hands already, with both David O. Russell and Neil Burger taking a whack at the job before finding other projects to do, but now a third contender has entered the ring to go toe-to-toe with the adventure game. According to Deadline, director Seth Gordon is now in negotiations with the folks over at Sony to direct the latest version of the Uncharted movie.
The most recent draft of the script has been written by David Guggenheim, which Deadline's sources say was so good that it got Sony to hire him to write Bad Boys III. The plot will follow adventurer Nathan Drake - a descendant of Sir Francis Drake - as he sets out on a global adventure alongside "a female journalist and his mentor" as he searches for the lost treasure of El Dorado. The casting process is expected to begin shortly, and while Mark Wahlberg was attached to the lead role when Russell was going to direct, fans have loudly proclaimed their desire to have Firefly star Nathan Fillion take the role.
Gordon is an interesting choice for the project, if not only because he has such a mixed background. The filmmaker broke out in 2007 with his video game documentary The King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters, and has spent the last few years making big studio comedies like Four Christmases and Horrible Bosses in addition to episodes of television shows like The Office, Community, Parks and Recreation and The Goldbergs. Uncharted will be his first time working in the action-adventure genre, though there were more than a few big stunts and chase sequences in his last film, Identity Thief.
Where Uncharted stands from a timeline perspective isn't entirely clear. Hiring a director and starting the casting process suggests that Sony wants to get a move on this project as soon as possible, but they have not yet announced a release date. If they can get things together quickly enough there is a possibility that the film could start production this year and wind up late on the 2015 schedule, but Sony's plans are currently a mystery. Get a taste of what to expect from the movie with the video game trailer below:
