Gather your witty banter, strap on a decent pair of climbing boots, and get ready for adventure, as Sony has announced that 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE director Dan Trachtenberg is set to replace STRANGER THINGS executive producer Shawn Levy as the helmer of UNCHARTED, a film adaptation of the popular video game featuring the adventures of Nathan "Drake" Morgan. As previously reported, Levy had to abandon the long-gestating project due to scheduling conflicts.
The UNCHARTED film, oddly enough, is set to star SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING actor Tom Holland as the dashing, quip-tastic teasure hunter. Throughout the years 2007-2017, Sony's award-winning Uncharted video game series has released nine different installments of the Action/Platfomer franchise for the Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and Android/IOS platforms. At its core, the series revolves around Nathan "Drake" Morgan, a snarky yet savvy explorer and his family of friends, of which include his right-hand-man, Victor "Sully" Sullivan, his life partner and fellow explorer Elena Fisher, and the self-serving Chloe Frazer, among others.
Sony's been trying like hell to get an Uncharted film up and running for what feels like forever. There was even a time when Mark Walberg was circling the role of Nathan "Drake" Morgan. However, after the project appeared to have stalled out, and Sony had time to bask in the success that was SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, the studio decided to re-tool the property with a young Tom Holland in mind as the film's titular hero. Personally, I think Holland is a bizarre choice, but Sony is obviously real keen on their loose-lipped wunderkind playing the part.
For the moment, UNCHARTED is being set up as a co-production between Avi Arad and Atlas Entertainment Production, with Charles Roven, Alex Gartner, and Ari and Avi Arad also on board. Jonathan Kasdin is currently overseeing the project, with Jonathan Rosenberg and Mark Walker having submitted the most recent draft of the film. There's a chance that the movie could roll into production toward the latter end of 2019, but much of that depends on Holland's ridiculously busy Marvel schedule and so on. With any luck, and a lot of careful planning, Sony will be able to schedule Holland out before another opportunity steals him away.
What do you think about Trachtenberg taking over as director of the long-planned UNCHARTED film? Where would you like to see Drake traveling to for his first big screen adventure? Let us know in the comments section below.