Uncharted (film)

In 2008, film producer Avi Arad stated that he was working with a division of Sony to develop the film adaptation of Uncharted.[7] In response to a question posed to Richard Lemarchand, lead game designer of Naughty Dog, on whether he would like to see a film adaptation of Uncharted, he replied "no comment".[8] Since then, Columbia Pictures has confirmed that an Uncharted film is being developed. The film was at first to be written by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer and produced by Avi Arad, Charles Roven, and Alex Gartner.[9][10] As of June 30, 2009, it was confirmed that the Uncharted film had been in development for the last year-and-a-half.[11] Nathan Fillion expressed an interest in playing Nathan Drake, and started a campaign on Twitter to encourage fans to support him in the endeavor.[12] In an August 2010 interview, Naughty Dog told PlayStation University how close they really were with the development of the movie and that they had trust with all who were working on it.[13]

On October 8, 2010, it was announced by Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach, co-presidents of Columbia Pictures, that David O. Russell had been set to write and direct the film, an action adventure based upon the first game in the series. The film would be produced by Avi Arad, Charles Roven, and Alex Gartner.[14] Following a screening of Russell's film, The Fighter, he was approached by a fan of the Uncharted series who asked whether he had considered Nathan Fillion for the role of Nathan Drake for the upcoming film due to the high number of requests for him to fulfill the role. Russell was unaware of the interest in Fillion and who he was and seemed to quickly dismiss the idea.[15]

On November 24, 2010, an interview with Mark Wahlberg was published by MTV with the actor discussing his involvement in the film adaptation of the popular franchise. He stated that Russell was currently writing the script and was excited for what he had in store, hoping to shoot in the middle of 2011: "I'm obviously in whatever David wants to do but the idea of it is so off the charts: Robert De Niro being my father, Joe Pesci being my uncle. It's not going to be the watered-down version, that's for sure."[4] On May 26, 2011, it was reported that Russell had departed the film to direct Silver Linings Playbook.[16] On July 6, Variety reported that Neil Burger was stepping in for Russell. Burger landed the offer after the studio and producers Avi Arad, Charles Roven and Alex Gartner sparked to his new take on the film. Burger spoke out about the film in July, saying the following:[17]

We're re-writing the script from scratch, and I'm just jumping into that literally right now, about to close the deal and leap off. Until the screenplay is written you never know who's going to be acting in it or not. But there are a lot of good actors out there who even look like Nathan Drake and who could do it. I love the project, I think it's a great adventure and it's a wild insane ride ... the game is and the movie will be. I mean it has pretty great character at its core, Nathan is a bit of a con man, a hustler ... knows his stuff, ballsy..it's great. Absolutely. And then you know you have to do what a movie does best, as well ... build on what's cool about the game and then make it into a movie. Yeah there will be (balance) in this one, this one is a very great adventure, and it's just a matter of pulling out the the [sic] very cool intense stuff that works for the film story, and making sure the story supports those elements and also makes us really connected to the character.

On August 23, 2012, Burger dropped out to work on Divergent and the studio hired the husband and wife team of Marianne and Cormac Wibberley to rewrite the film.[18][19] In an interview with IGN, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg said they were asked to write the film multiple times, but declined all of them.[20] On February 4, 2014, Deadline reported that Seth Gordon would direct the film with the latest script being written by David Guggenheim.[21] Production was set to begin in early 2015.[22] The film was originally scheduled for release on June 10, 2016.[23] On November 12, 2014, the studio hired Mark Boal to write the film.[24] After Wahlberg, Chris Pratt was in talks to portray Nathan Drake, but he reportedly declined the offer.[24] On June 24, 2015, Seth Gordon left the project to work on Baywatch.[25][26]

In April 2015, the script written by David Guggenheim was leaked, having been obtained in the Sony Pictures hack.[27] On August 5, 2015, Sony Pictures Entertainment pushed the film's release date back to June 30, 2017.[28] In an interview with Game News Official, Nathan Drake's voice actor Nolan North stated that he believed that fans did not want a movie.[29][30] Charles Roven did reveal to Collider that what they were working on was pretty exciting, there was a director that they did not have at the moment, and they were not ready to cast that vote until they were actually ready to cast.[31] In April 2016, Neil Druckmann, who had worked on previous Uncharted games, said that the most important aspect of the film is the character relationships.[32][33]

On July 29, 2016, Variety reported that Joe Carnahan was writing the draft of the film's script.[34] On September 1, 2016, the film was removed from Sony's release calendar due to not having a director or cast, but Sony was still moving forward with the film.[35][36] On October 25, 2016, Shawn Levy was announced to be directing the film.[37] Carnahan said to Collider that he and Levy are knowledgeable about the game, and had been hard at work getting the characters right.[38] The filming was set to begin in early 2017.[39] In early January 2017, Carnahan posted a photo on his Instagram to show that the script of the film had been completed.[40][41] In May 2017, Tom Holland was cast as a young Nathan Drake, with the movie serving as a prequel to the games.[2] Television writer Rafe Judkins was brought on to rework the script.[42] On December 19, 2018, it was announced that Levy had departed the film to work on Free Guy.[43][44]

On January 14, 2019, Variety reported that Dan Trachtenberg had signed on to direct the film.[45] In June 2019, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that the movie is set to release on December 18, 2020.[46] On August 22, 2019, Deadline reported that Dan Trachtenberg had exited the film, with the film scheduled to go into production in early 2020. The film will become the first feature production of Sony's PlayStation Productions.[47] On September 27, 2019, The Hollywood Reporter informed that Travis Knight would direct the film.[48] In November, Wahlberg returned to the project to star alongside Holland in the role of Victor Sullivan.[49] In December 2019, Knight left the project due to scheduling conflicts with Holland, which resulted in the film losing its December 18, 2020 release date.[50][51]

In January 2020, Ruben Fleischer entered talks to replace Knight as director, with the film's release date pushed back to March 5, 2021.[52][53][54] In February 2020, Fleischer was confirmed as director, with the film's plot serving as a direct adaptation of the games.[55][56] The film will take inspiration from the fourth game in the series, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.[57][58][59] In March, Antonio Banderas, Sophia Taylor Ali, and Tati Gabrielle were added to the cast, with a new script from Art Marcum and Matt Holloway.[5]

Principal photography began on March 16, 2020, shooting in areas around Berlin.[60] Production was expected to take place at Babelsberg Studio,[61] before moving to Spain.[62] Filming was shut down in mid-March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[63][64] It was believed filming had resumed on July 15, 2020,[65] however, Sony Pictures clarified, while production has not yet resumed, they were undergoing preparations with the hope to start production soon.[66] Production officially resumed on July 20, shooting in areas around Germany, with proper social distancing and mask requirements being implemented on and off the set.[67][68][69] On August 5, Banderas temporarily left production after he tested positive for COVID-19.[70] On August 26, Banderas recovered from COVID-19, returning to production soon after.[71] On September 16, filming moved to Berlin, with set photos being released online.[72] In October 2020, production was shooting in areas around Valencia, Spain, including the coastal town of Xàbia.[73] On October 23, Holland finished shooting his scenes.[74][75] Filming wrapped on October 29.[76]