A film adaptation of the video game series Uncharted has been in development for a while, and it’s no surprise fans are chomping at the bit to see what can be done on the big screen with a franchise that seems so suited for a cinematic adaptation.
Thus when Tom Holland was announced to star as Nathan Drake, fans were a little confused that the film wanted a young actor to star in the film and forge ahead with a prequel-like origin story, something the games haven’t covered. While it’s been established that Holland himself pushed Sony for an origin story, director Shawn Levy has now opened up about the idea:
Telling Heroic Hollywood, Levy said:
“[If] we do the origin of Drake, Tom as younger Drake, that is something that we haven’t seen as the plot of game 1, 2, 3, 4. We’ve seen a snippet of an origin of Sully and Drake meeting in the past, but here’s maybe an opportunity to do a treasure-hunting action movie with attitude, with a protagonist — and a chapter of that protagonist’s life — that you can’t get for free, at home, by just playing the game”.
While it makes sense to explore the origins of a character that most movie goers won’t be familiar with, it might seem odd to immediately gravitate away from the source material before any film has even been made. Then again, traditional video game adaptations haven’t exactly had a wide range of success, so maybe Levy is onto something.
The director went on to add: “Hopefully, if we can get that right, what you’re doing is, you’re doing right by Uncharted, and you’re also giving an Indiana Jones-type franchise to an audience that didn’t grow up on Indiana Jones“.
Uncharted itself took a lot of influence from Steven Spielberg‘s film series, and attempting to create an Indiana Jones-type franchise for a new generation of fans is a good idea, though assuming you can simply recreate the magic of those films and have instant critical and box office success just because the idea is similar would be naive.
Uncharted, whenever it finally gets released, will have to stand on its own, away from Indiana Jones and away from its own video game success. If it can’t, it might end up as just another failed video game adaptation to add to the pile.
#Peace.Love.Uncharted
