While the Uncharted franchise is still churning out new video games every several years, it’s been over a decade since talk of making a live action movie about Nathan Drake started. In 2017, it was announced that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man, Tom Holland, had been cast to play a younger Drake, but we’ve been waiting patiently since to learn when the Uncharted movie will finally arrive.
Now the question has been answered. Today, Sony Pictures dated Uncharted for December 18, 2020. That puts it in opening weekend competition with Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake and Coming to America 2.
Although Tom Holland is chiefly known for appearing as Peter Parker in the MCU, which will continue this summer with Spider-Man: Far From Home, he’s been fleshing out his resume with movies Chaos Walking, The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle and Onward. Uncharted will give Holland an opportunity to leave his mark on a different kind of blockbuster. Maybe Holland’s increasing fame will help draw audiences in who are looking for some cinematic fun during the Christmas season.
The Uncharted movie has seen a lot of writers and directors come and go since it was announced in 2008, with some of the latter including David O. Russell, Neil Burger and Shawn Levy. As of January, Dan Trachtenberg of Night at the Museum and 10 Cloverfield Lane fame is attached to helm the picture following Levy’s exit. Jonathan Rosenberg and Mark Walker penned the latest draft of the script.
Years before Tom Holland was officially cast as Nathan Drake, Mark Wahlberg was attached to the role when David O. Russell was still on board. At other times, Nathan Fillion expressed interest in the role and Chris Pratt was briefly in talks for it, respectively. Fillion later played Drake in a well-received fan film that was posted online in July 2018.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Uncharted video games, they follow Nathan Drake as a charismatic treasure hunter who travels across the world and uncovers historical mysteries. Along with fighting enemies, overcoming physical obstacles and even driving in later games, players also solve intricate puzzles as Drake. If it helps, think of him as being analogous to Indiana Jones or Lara Croft.
Thus far, four games comprise the main Uncharted game series, and Uncharted 4 received an expansion called Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, where players can play as Nathan Drake’s romantic interest Chloe Frazier. It remains to be seen which supporting characters from the Uncharted games will appear in the movie.
As you’ll notice if you look up images of Nathan Drake, he looks at least a tad older than Tom Holland. Rather than directly adapting the first Uncharted game, the movie will be an origin story, with Shawn Levy saying back in 2017 that taking this approach was appealing because it won’t just rehash what people have already seen unfold in a game.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on the Uncharted movie’s development as they come in. For now, you can plan your visits to the movie theater later this year with our 2019 release schedule.
