Those who have been looking forward to movie adaptations ofUnchartedandThe Last of Us, both of which come from video game studio Naughty Dog, have some good and bad news today. The good news mostly comes on theUnchartedfront, because that movie is still said to be moving slowly but surely toward development. As forThe Last of Usmovie? That’s a different story entirely.
Naughty Dogcreative director Neil Druckmann recently provided updates on both of these movie adaptations at DICE Summit 2018. Starting with the good news, he reveals that the long-gestating adaptation ofUncharted, which many feel has the potential to be an action/adventure in the spirit ofIndiana Jones, is still moving forward. The version featuring ayoung Nathan Drake, who will be played by Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Homecoming) and possibly directed by Shawn Levy (Stranger Things), is still in development. Here’s what Druckmann had to say about it.
“The Uncharted movie, yeah, we’ve had some conversations with Shawn Levy. And he’sreally passionate, gets it, and I think he understands where we’re at. We’ve kind of evolved our feelings towards these kind of adaptations over the years. We used to just be excited, ‘Oh, my god, movies are looking at us. There could be an Uncharted movie on the screen.’ And then as more time passes on, we’re not excited about a direct adaptation of the story we told, because we feel like we’ve already told that story very well, cinematically, so I don’t know what else you could bring to it. … [Shawn Levy] wanting to tell a different story than the main four adventures, with potentially a young Nathan Drake, that fills in the gaps, I think is a lot more interesting than trying to retell Uncharted 1, 2, 3, and 4.”
While it doesn’t sound like theUnchartedmovie, which has beenin development for yearsat this point, is terribly close to happening, the version that is currently on the table is still on the table. Neil Druckmann’s reasoning is understandable. Why tell old stories again in a new medium? Why not tell a new story? That’s why this version ofUnchartedseems to make sense. However, that very same reason is likely why we’ll never see the adaptation ofThe Last of Usthat’s been kicking around for years.
“And even I worked on the script for The Last of Us film, which was a direct adaptation. And now, having some separation from it, I look back and [am] like, ‘I don’t want that movie to be made.'”
It’s possible that a version ofThe Last of Uscould make it to the big screen, but it won’t be a direct adaptation, based on this new information. Basically, the project as we know it has pretty much been scrapped it sounds like.Unchartedstill has an uphill battle and is, by all indications, still stuck in development hell, but not off the table. Maybe ifTomb RaiderorRampageactually managed to deliver a good video game movie this year it will help getUnchartedtruly moving. This news was first reported byScreen Rant.
