Uncharted is a new action-adventure film based on a popular videogame of the same name by Naughty Dog.
Tom Holland and Marke Walhberg star in the film. So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about the new film.
- Uncharted is a 2022 American action-adventure film
- It i directed by Ruben Fleischer
- From a screenplay by Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway
- The film is based on Naughty Dog’s video game series of the same name
- It stars Tom Holland as Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as his mentor Victor Sullivan
- With Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, and Antonio Banderas in supporting roles
- In the film, Drake is recruited by Sullivan in a race against corrupt billionaire Santiago Moncada (Banderas) and hired mercenary Jo Braddock (Gabrielle) to locate the treasure of the Magellan expedition
- Uncharted entered development in 2008 with producer Avi Arad stating that he would be working with Sony Pictures to develop a film adaptation of the video game series
- It entered a complicated production process with various directors, screenwriters, and cast members attached at various points
- Filmmakers David O. Russell, Neil Burger, Seth Gordon, Shawn Levy, Dan Trachtenberg, and Travis Knight were initially signed to direct
- While Wahlberg was set to play Drake in early development
- Holland was cast as Drake in May 2017 and Fleischer was hired as the director in early 2020
- Principal photography commenced in March 2020
- It finished the following October
- With filming locations including Babelsberg Studio in Berlin and on location across Spain and Southeast Asia
- Uncharted was originally set for release on October 8, 2021
- But was postponed several times, namely due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- It premiered in Barcelona on February 7, 2022
- It was theatrically released in the United States by Sony Pictures Releasing on February 18
- The film received mixed reviews from critics
- With praise for Holland’s performance
- But criticism for the screenplay, casting, and lack of originality
- In 2008, film producer Avi Arad stated that he was working with a division of Sony to develop the film adaptation of Uncharted
- 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”
- Since then, Columbia Pictures had confirmed that an Uncharted film was 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
- As of June 30, 2009, it was confirmed that the Uncharted film had been in development for the last year-and-a-half
- Nathan Fillion expressed an interest in playing Nathan Drake, and started a campaign on Twitter to encourage fans to support him in the endeavor
- In an August 2010 interview, Naughty Dog told PlayStation University how close they really were with the development of the film and that they had trust with all who were working on it
- 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
- 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 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
- Fillion would then later go on to do a short Uncharted fan-film 8 years later, featuring him as Nathan Drake to positive reception
- 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
- On May 26, 2011, it was reported that Russell had departed the film to direct Silver Linings Playbook
- 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
- 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
- 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
- On February 4, 2014, Deadline reported that Seth Gordon would direct the film with the latest script being written by David Guggenheim
- Production was set to begin in early 2015
- The film was originally scheduled for release on June 10, 2016
- On November 12, 2014, the studio hired Mark Boal to write the film
- After Wahlberg, Chris Pratt was approached to portray Nathan Drake, but he declined the offer
- On June 24, 2015, Seth Gordon left the project to work on Baywatch
- In April 2015, the script written by David Guggenheim was leaked, having been obtained in the Sony Pictures hack
- On August 5, 2015, Sony Pictures Entertainment pushed the film’s release date back to June 30, 2017
- In an interview with Game News Official, Nolan North, who voiced Nathan Drake in the video games, stated that he believed that fans did not want an Uncharted film
- 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
- 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
- On July 29, 2016, Variety reported that Joe Carnahan was writing the draft of the film’s script
- 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
- On October 25, 2016, Shawn Levy was announced to be directing the film
- Carnahan said to Collider that he and Levy are knowledgeable about the game, and had been hard at work getting the characters right
- The filming was set to begin in early 2017
- In early January 2017, Carnahan posted a photo on his Instagram to show that the script of the film had been completed
- In May 2017, Tom Holland was cast as a young Nathan Drake, with the film serving as a prequel to the games
- Television writer Rafe Judkins was brought on to rework the script
- On December 19, 2018, it was announced that Levy had departed the film to work on Free Guy
- On January 14, 2019, Variety reported that Dan Trachtenberg had signed on to direct the film
- In June 2019, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that the film was set to be released on December 18, 2020
- 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 would become the first feature production of Sony’s PlayStation Productions
- On September 27, 2019, The Hollywood Reporter informed that Travis Knight would direct the film
- In November, Wahlberg returned to the project to star alongside Holland in the role of Victor Sullivan
- 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
- In the United States and Canada, Uncharted was released alongside Dog
- It was projected to gross $25 to 40 million from an estimated 4,200 theaters in its opening weekend
- The film earned an estimated $3.7 million from Thursday night previews
- Outside the United States and Canada, the film grossed $21.5 million in its opening weekend from 15 international markets
- It opened in first place at the box office in all of its markets, including the United Kingdom ($6.4 million), Russia ($4.5 million), and Spain ($3.5 million)
- The film’s international opening gross was reported to be ahead of the debuts of Marvel Studios’ Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Eternals
- On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 39% rating
- Based on 173 critics’ reviews
- With an average rating of 5.2/10
- The website’s consensus reads, “Promisingly cast but misleadingly titled, Uncharted mines its bestselling source material to produce a disappointing echo of superior adventure films”
- Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 47 out of 100
- Based on 40 critics
- Indicating “mixed or average reviews”
- Roxy Simons of Newsweek noted the film’s ending leaves open a number of avenues for a possible sequel or film series
- Fleischer expressed interest in a sequel
- He cited the car chase from A Thief’s End as a set piece he’d like to replicate
- He noted any sequel was dependent on the financial success of the first film
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