Uncharted Movie Director Won't "Trace The Game"

Despite losing a director, signing a separate director, and suffering a script rewrite this year, the unnamed Uncharted movie is still barreling toward its December 18, 2020 release. With all that time, director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) seeks to do Naughty Dog's iconic franchise justice without retreading old ground.

Trachtenberg spoke to GamesRadar about his intention with the action-adventure film, saying he wants the story to be different from the games. "[I] have been approached with different versions of this tale and have always been not that interested in it because I really don't want to trace the game," Trachtenberg said.

He furthers his statement by saying copying what the games have already done is not a good enough reason to bring Nathan Drake to the big screen. "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."

With the consensus that video game movie adaptations aren't good, Trachtenberg does not want to retell the same story because it has already been done and whatever he does will likely not live up to the experience long-time fans have already had. However, Trachtenberg is confident in the work currently being done, saying, "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."

Sony announced in May 2017 that Spider-Man actor Tom Holland (Pilgrimage, Spider-Man: Far From Home) would take the lead role as a younger Nathan Drake, with a story focusing on the events prior to Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. No other casting announcements have been made. A Last of Us movie is also in the works.