Sony searching for new Uncharted director as Dan Trachtenberg exits

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Here we go again. A big-screen adaptation of the Uncharted video-game franchise has been in various stages of development for over a decade at this point, and the project has seen a number of directors attached to the film, including David O. Russell, Neil Burger, Seth Gordon, and Shawn Levy. 10 CLOVERFIELD LAND director Dan Trachtenberg was tapped to helm the project earlier this year, but now it appears that he's departed as well. Can't catch a break.

Deadline dropped the news that Dan Trachtenberg has exited the UNCHARTED movie and that Sony Pictures has already been meeting with potential replacements as production is still expected to kick off early next year. Tom Holland (SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME) is still attached to star, but I'd imagine that this isn't the worst news the actor has received this week. In addition to Trachtenberg's exit, Deadline also says that the UNCHARTED film will become the first feature production of Sony PlayStation Productions, which was set up at Sony last year.

Dan Trachtenberg had previously said that he was hoping to avoid the so-called video-game movie curse by steering clear of making a straight adaptation of the source material. "[I] have been approached with different versions of this tale and have always been not that interested in it because I didn't really want to trace the game," Trachtenberg said. "I didn't really feel like it was at all worthy of making a video game adaptation, [if[ we're just gonna copy what the game is and just serve people a lesser experience than what they've experienced in such an incredible way." Trachtenberg was quite excited by what they had whipped up so far, even saying that "if Naughty Dog so chose to make another Uncharted game featuring Nate and Sully… this movie's story is probably the story that they would want to tell."

Any ideas on who would be a good fit to direct the UNCHARTED movie? Sixth time's the charm. Isn't that how the saying goes?