Columbia Pictures has confirmed that it is aiming to create a movie based on the videogame Uncharted: Drake's Fortune by appointing a writer to handle the script for the production. The writer is Kyle Ward, the author of the script for the rather dull Hitman movie and who is also working on the script for the upcoming Kane and Lynch movie. Apparently, the guy is perfecting the art for transforming videogames into movies for the big screen.

The Hollywood Reporter, which first wrote about the news, says that once the script is completed, Columbia is set to look for actors for the main parts and then swiftly move to shooting the Uncharted movie.

Even if the studio moves full speed on this, which is rarely the deal with videogame to movie projects, there's no chance for Uncharted the movie to arrive on the market anywhere near the release date for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the videogame sequel which is being worked on by developer Naughty Dog.

When Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was released in 2007, it quickly sold more than 1 million copies. The game is an action adventure mix up, with the main character, Nathan Drake, aiming at finding the mythical city of El Dorado while staying alive as he is assaulted by other fortune hunters and by some evil mutants.

The sequel, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, was officially unveiled at the E3 show and the Game Critics Association named it the best game presented at the annual expo. There's a multiplayer beta for the game, which attracted a lot of attention, and Sony is hoping that the PlayStation 3 exclusive will be a success.

A movie is probably a bad idea, given the fact that most films based on games fail to replicate the initial vision of the developers. Still, there is hope for Uncharted given that the Tomb Raider movies managed to actually reflect the way games revolutionized the industry.