All The Ways Tom Hollands Uncharted Almost Didn’t Get Made

All The Ways Tom Holland’s Uncharted Almost Didn’t Get Made

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After over a decade of delays as the adaptation was trapped in development hell, Uncharted will be released in 2022. Here’s why it took so long.

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All The Ways Tom Hollands Uncharted Almost Didn’t Get Made

For years, the Tom Holland fronted film adaptation of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted video games has struggled against production delays and staff changes. Uncharted first entered production back in 2008 before the second game, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, was even released. After more than a decade, several more games, and years of development hell, the film is slated for release in February of 2022.

The four main entries in the Uncharted franchise follow the character of Nathan Drake as he seeks lost mythical treasures and faces demons from his past. The series was successful enough that audiences are still eager for the possibility of a fifth game in the main series, and a spin-off game following Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross was well-received. The movie adaptation of Uncharted will be a prequel to the first game in the series, set before the events of that game, but after those of the flashbacks that appear in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.

Being based on a hugely popular series of games, one that helped define Sony’s PlayStation exclusive title base, the Uncharted film has some big shoes to fill. After so much time, so many delays, and the divisive casting of Tom Holland as Nathan “Nate” Drake and Mark Wahlberg as Victor “Sully” Sullivan, audiences are eager to see whether the wait is based on a fundamental flaw in the execution, or whether the production teams have just been taking their time to get it right. Video game movie adaptations have a bad rap, but a few releases have started to break the curse. Here are the key things that kept the Uncharted movie from being realized sooner.

Uncharted’s Changing Writers And Directors

All The Ways Tom Hollands Uncharted Almost Didn’t Get Made

Whenever a Hollywood project takes a long time to be made, some members of the cast and crew will have to drop out to fulfill other commitments. Recasting can slow production down when an actor leaves, but Uncharted has had to contend with a heavy turnover of both writers and directors. Each time this happened, it seemed to mean a completely new direction for the film, with them almost starting over each time.

The original official announcement of the movie in 2009 revealed that Avi Arad, the founder of Marvel Studios, was set to direct with Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (Conan the Barbarian, 2011) set to write. In 2010, Arad stepped back to a producer role, and David O. Russell (American Hustle) took over both director and writer responsibilities. However, Russell left the project in 2011 to work on Silver Linings Playbook, and Neil Burger (Limitless) came in to head the project and announced that they would be re-writing the script from scratch.

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In 2012, Burger took on the role of director for Divergent and left Uncharted behind. Marianne and Cormac Wibberley (National Treasure) were then brought in to write the script but had left the project by 2014 when Seth Gordon (Identity Theif) came aboard to direct with David Guggenheim (Designated Survivor) working on the newest script. With Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) and then Joe Carnahan (Death Wish, 2018) coming in as new writers and Seth Gordon leaving to direct Baywatch in 2015, by 2016, Sony removed the movie from their release schedule while they regrouped.

In 2016 Sony added Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum) to direct Uncharted while Rafe Judkins (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Wheel of Time) was brought on to rework the scripts. In 2018, Levy left to work on Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy. 2019 then saw Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) come and go from the director role before it was filled by Travis Knight (Bumblebee), who had to leave in 2020 due to scheduling conflicts with Tom Holland. Finally, in 2020 Ruben Fleischer (Venom, Zombieland) entered as director with a new script from Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Iron Man, Men in Black: International), with Rafe Judkins retaining a writer credit. This is the final version that is set to be released in 2022.

How The Sony Hack Affected Uncharted

All The Ways Tom Hollands Uncharted Almost Didn’t Get Made

An unlikely setback for the Uncharted movie adaptation came from the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, where a group of hackers gained access to Sony Pictures’ critical files for at least two months. The group, calling themselves “Guardians of Peace,” obtained huge amounts of the company’s data, including movie scripts and behind-the-scenes emails that revealed behind-the-scenes correspondence. The hackers released large amounts of this information and threatened further releases and terrorist attacks if Seth Rogen and James Franco’s movie The Interview was not permanently pulled from release.

One of the film scripts that was compromised and then released was David Guggenheim’s 2014 iteration of the Uncharted film. After the script was released in 2015, Sony Pictures pushed the release back for Uncharted to 2017, suggesting that they had decided to change the story’s direction after that version had been spoiled. The knowledge that Guggenheim’s script had been compromised could be the reason behind Mark Boal’s late-2014 hiring on as a writer.

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Casting Uncharted Was Difficult While The Movie Was In Development Hell

All The Ways Tom Hollands Uncharted Almost Didn’t Get Made

As production dragged on and the plan for the movie changed, casting had to be redone. This most notably affected the many actors almost cast as Nathan Drake. Mark Wahlberg was originally attached to the role as early as 2010. Wahlberg was no stranger to video game adaptations, having fronted Max Payne, and was keen to ensure that Uncharted was not a watered-down adaptation of the game. Wahlberg eventually had to leave the Uncharted film to work on other projects. Before Sony Pictures finally cast Tom Holland, many other actors were cast, considered, or rumored to be taking the role, including Nathan Fillion, Jensen Ackles, Chris Pine, and Chris Pratt.

That initial casting of Wahlberg came along with the big-name stars Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro set to play Drake’s father and uncle. Like Wahlberg, they dropped out as the film languished in development hell. With so much time having passed, by the time the movie was filmed and set to be a prequel of the original series, Wahlberg had aged out of the Drake role and instead returned to play Sully, taking on the role of the older mentor instead of the brash young adventurer.

How COVID-19 Slowed Down Uncharted

After an extended production timeline, Uncharted was set for release under Fleischer’s direction in March of 2021. However, as with many movies planned for 2020 and 2021, the coronavirus pandemic delayed production even further. They began filming in Berlin on March 16th, 2020, only to have to shut down the shoot later that day due to the pandemic.

In July 2020, Sony was able to return to the production of Uncharted in Germany while implementing social distancing and mask requirements throughout the shoot. In August 2020, Antonio Banderas had to leave the production after he tested positive for COVID-19, but he recovered and returned three weeks later. Production was able to be completed in Spain and concluded in October.

After over a decade of delays, Uncharted is now set for release on February 18th, 2022. After so long, audiences may be wondering what the next problem will be to hold up the release. However, with the film in post-production and streaming releases becoming more commonplace, it seems likely that some version of the film will truly be released in 2022.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/uncharted-movie-tom-holland-delays-cancellations-changes-explained/

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