Nordling here.
David O. Russell will no longer be involved with the video game to film adaptation of UNCHARTED: DRAKE'S FORTUNE. Russell seemed an odd fit for the project from the start - an Oscar-nominated director making a video game movie raised quite a bit of eyebrows - and his ideas for the story didn't mesh with fans of the game franchise. It remains unclear what this means for the cast, including Mark Wahlberg, Robert DeNiro, and Joe Pesci. An interesting cast for a video game movie, to say the least, and the game lends itself to a good movie as the story seemed quite adaptable for a video game.
The UNCHARTED games followed the story of Nathan Drake, treasure hunter, and his various adventures across the globe, along with his friend and pilot Sully. Along the way, lots of bad guys get shot and lots of walls get climbed. It's got a more solid story than most games, and much of the game's charm lay in the vocal performances and the witty dialogue. The graphics aren't shabby either, and much of the action took place in a jungle setting, at least in the first game.
I quite like the UNCHARTED games - they're very cinematic for the medium and the first one, at least, had a real RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK thing going with many of the action sequences. Nathan Drake was an interesting character, as voice acted by Nolan North, and many fans wanted Nathan Fillion for the role in the film. Now that Russell has exited, it's quite possible that Mark Wahlberg will exit with him, re-igniting many fans' hopes. Or the movie may just drop into development hell altogether. Either way, we'll still have the games, which are a lot of fun.
Nordling, out.
