14 DAY TRIAL // The new director of the Uncharted movie project, Neil Burger, has talked about the film and how he is now starting from scratch, even acknowledging the desire of Uncharted fans to see the protagonist, Nathan Drake, be portrayed by actor Nathan Fillion.
Sony has been backing up a movie project based on its Uncharted series of video games for quite some time, and things were really progressing with director David O. Russell, even if he had a pretty different take on the franchise than the actual video games.
As we heard recently, a new director has now taken the helm of the project, Neil Burger, who previously worked on Limitless, and will assume writing duties.
He talked with Crave Online about the new movie, how he is starting from scratch and going back to the action of the video games in order to respect it.
"Mainly we’re beginning from scratch and going back to the videogame," Burger said. "Because there’s a lot of cool stuff, actually, from the videogame, if you know it. It’s really one of the most cinematic videogames, and one that has really developed characters. So, you know, there’s a lot of cool, really intense things that, if they work for the film’s story, I want to use them."
Burger's views are different from those of Russell, who imagined Nathan Drake as part of a family of treasure hunters that protected ancient artifacts from bad guys or thieves.
The new director also talked about the massive movement among Uncharted fans who are eager to see the protagonist be played by Nathan Drake, of Firefly or Castle fame.
"So, you know, I think he’s a good actor. I think there’s a lot of really good actors who don’t even look like [Nathan Drake] who could play it! Where we are right now is that we’re literally starting from scratch on the screenplay, and I think that once we finish it, then we’ll go to actors and see who’s available and who’s right for the parts. Whenever that happens."
Russell had his mind set on Mark Wahlberg for the role of Nathan Drake, and was even speculating on who would play his love interest, Elena Fisher, hinting at actresses like Scarlett Johansson or Eva Mendes.
As you can see, however, Burger is keen on getting the script ready and will then start casting actors for the Uncharted movie.