Now that we know Assassin’s Creed isn’t going to be the film to break the curse of good video games being turned into bad — or at the very least, poorly performing — movies, it’s time to start looking to the next major game adaptation with some potential: Uncharted.
To say that the Uncharted movie has had a rough road to the screen is a massive understatement, as the project has been in development for nearly a decade now with a long list of writers, directors, and stars attached at various points. So it’s worth noting that current screenwriter Joe Carnahan (The Grey, The A-Team) has reached a point that few others before him have achieved. He has actually finished a screenplay for the film.
Carnahan posted visual evidence of his finished screenplay on Instagram and offered up some confident claims about the story he crafted for the film.
“Done and Dusted,” wrote Carnahan. “Now the REAL work begins. If there’s a more monstrously cool action script in Hollywood right now, I wanna read it, ‘cuz this thing is a BEAST.”
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, Uncharted is set to be directed by Night at the Museum and Real Steel director Shawn Levy, who also serves as an executive producer and director on the hit Netflix series Stranger Things. Although Carnahan has directed many of the films based on his scripts, he’s currently expected to helm the upcoming the Bad Boys’ franchise sequel Bad Boys For Life, which takes him out of the equation for Uncharted.
One of the most popular game franchises of all time, the Uncharted series 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 last May.
The Uncharted film still doesn’t have an official release date.