Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

'Stranger Things' director/producer Shawn Levy enters 'Uncharted' territory

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Image used with permission by copyright holder
The saga of the Uncharted movie has taken a new and surprisingly strange twist with the announcement that the long-delayed project has yet another director attached to it.

Night at the Museum and Real Steel director Shawn Levy has reportedly been hired as the film’s new director, likely making the big-screen adaptation his next project after executive producing and directing episodes of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things. The film still doesn’t have an official release date, and Levy is expected to shift between Uncharted and the second season of Stranger Things as both projects move forward.

Previously scheduled to hit theaters in June 2017, Uncharted was removed from Sony Pictures’ release calendar in September following almost a decade of starts and stops in its development cycle as various writers, directors, and cast members joined and subsequently exited the project. Levy’s attachment to the film was initially reported by Deadline.

The Uncharted movie is based on the hit series of games that follow treasure hunter Nathan Drake — a descendant of explorer Sir Francis Drake — as he travels the world in search of historical (and occasionally mythological) artifacts. Along the way, he often find themselves at odds with hardened criminals and secret societies who want the treasures for themselves.

The Grey and The A-Team writer Joe Carnahan is working on the most recent script for the film, and was initially expected to direct the movie as well. Carnahan is the latest in a long line of filmmakers attached to the project. Two-time Academy Award winner Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) worked on an earlier draft of the script. Other writers who have been involved with the project include five-time Academy Award nominee David O. Russell (American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook), Doctor Strange screenwriters Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, Safe House writer David Guggenheim, and National Treasure writing duo Cormac and Marianne Wibberley.

To date, the Uncharted franchise includes four major releases and various spinoff projects released for handheld consoles, card games, and other media. The second game in the series, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, is one of the highest-rated games of all time for the PlayStation 3, and received multiple “Game of the Year” awards after its release in 2009. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End was released in May.

Editors' Recommendations

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
An unexpected character could return in Stranger Things season 5
A girl cries next to an older man in a scene from Stranger Things.

With Stranger Things renewed for a fifth and final season, Matthew Modine  is campaigning for his character, Dr. Martin Brenner, to return to the Netflix series. On the BAFTAs red carpet, Modine suggested that his character may not be dead after the events of season 4.

"Is he dead?" Modine asked when questioned by Radio Times about Brenner's fate. "I wish I knew. I love Millie Bobby Brown. I love the Duffer brothers and Shawn Levy. And it was such a wonderful show to go to work on. It was fun every day that I worked on the show. I hope that there's some way to resuscitate Dr. Brenner and put him in season 5 because it would be wonderful to be part of the last season."

Read more
There’s a Stranger Things prequel, and you’ll never guess what it’s about
Logo for the "Stranger Things: The First Shadow."

Stranger Things on Netflix may be coming to an end after season 5, but the spinoffs have only just begun. The first one is heading to the stage as Stranger Things: The First Shadow is going to London's West End later this year.

The play is set 25 years before the events of Stranger Things season 1 "before the world turned upside down." The play will focus on younger versions of four characters from the series: Jim Hopper, Joyce Maldonado, Bob Newby, and Henry Creel.

Read more
Stranger Things tops Nielsen’s 2022 streaming charts
The cast of Stranger Things season 4 is standing in front of a field looking surprised.

2022 belonged to the Upside Down as Netflix's Stranger Things occupied the top spot on Nielsen's 2022 streaming rankings. Thanks to its record-breaking fourth season, Stranger Things was the most-streamed television show of 2022, with 52 billion minutes viewed.

The nine-episode fourth season catapulted Stranger Things to the top of the charts. The science fiction drama was also number one for the most-streamed original program of 2022. To this day, Stranger Things season 4 remains Netflix's most popular television program of all time. The fourth season accumulated 1,352,090,000 minutes streamed in the first 28 days.

Read more