In no time flat, Joe Carnahan went from being the guy who got dumped by Universal over Stretch to a man in great demand. Not only is Fox's X-Force movie now on his plate, but Sony's Bad Boys For Life is still a going concern for him as well. This is all, of course, on top of a draft he's written for Sony Pictures' perpetually developing Uncharted adaptation. And true to form, Carnahan has given audiences something to look forward to in his version of Nathan Drake's first cinematic adventure: balls-to-the-wall action adventure set pieces!
The man wasn't shy about discussing Uncharted with Coming Soon, as he was being prodded about yet another project he's attached to, the American remake of The Raid. So naturally, when you're talking about action movies, a sense of scale is going to be discussed, as it's important when crafting the perfect sequence of thrills and spills. And Joe Carnahan had the following to say, in terms of Uncharted's supposed scale:
I probably wrote four of the biggest, fuckin' craziest action sequences I think I've ever written in that movie. I used the Uncharted games as a template but not using any one specifically, because those sequences have already been done beautifully. There's no point in just transposing them to film, you've gotta come up with new shit, so that's what I did. It was a great challenge but it was a lot of fun.
So not only does Joe Carnahan seem to have total creative control over how he adapts Uncharted for the big screen, he's also decided to use that freedom to give Nathan Drake some new pitfalls and obstacles to work his way through. Now some of you out there might be questioning Carnahan's claims, as anyone can say that their action is "the fuckin' craziest." But only a handful of people can be trusted to deliver on those claims, and Carnahan is definitely one of them! After all, this is the man who gave us Smokin' Aces, The Grey and the vastly underseen Stretch, all of which escalate at exciting levels of action and mayhem. In fact, if you threw those three movies into a blender, you'd probably get a rough idea of what Carnahan's Uncharted would feel like.
Seeing the writer/director's confidence in his own work is something truly wonderful to behold. For a guy who's had major studios delay or outright handicap projects he's spent real time and money on, Joe Carnahan doesn't let it get him down. He keeps getting back up and putting in the work of a real artist. Whatever project he gets to direct next is one we'll look forward to, and here's hoping that if anyone but him directs Uncharted, they'll stick closely to the insane action he's put onto paper.
Uncharted is currently without a release date or production start date, but as soon as we have any updates about the project's status, we'll bring them to you as soon as possible.
