Tom Holland is about to finally bring the popular video game character Nathan Drake to the big screen in Uncharted. Movies based on video games have been a hot property for years, with several projects based on games on the way. Despite that many have fallen short of mainstream box office success, but Tom Holland is ready to star in his next game adaptation movie, though the choice is likely one you’d never expect, Naughty Dog’s Jak and Daxter. And that’s not even the strangest part.
Speaking with Gamespot Tom Holland was asked what other video game character he’d love to tackle if he had complete creative freedom. Not only did he pick the somewhat strange Jak and Daxter, he wants to make it at A24, the independent studio that’s becoming known for arthouse horror movies and serious dramas. Holland explained…
I would like to make a Jak and Daxter movie, and I would play Jak,” Holland said. “But I would make it at A24, so it was really weird and like dark. I would do like a really weird, live-action version of Jak and Daxter
Jak and Daxter was an action platform game franchise that saw a trilogy of games released on the Playstation 2 between 2001 and 2004, with a couple of spinoffs that followed later. It came out during an era where many studios were trying to produce platformers with mascot characters who could become the PlayStation version of Nintendo’s Mario. None were very successful in that regard, but many of the games were pretty good. They’ve continued to see rereleases on new consoles.
The Jak and Daxter franchise focused on a young human character named Jak and his friend Daxter, an alien weasel otter hybrid. They were made by Naughty Dog, the same studio that would go on to make the Uncharted games, which may be why Holland decided to consider them.
Certainly a mascot platformer that hasn’t even released a spinoff game in over a decade would be an odd choice for a modern film adaptation. At the same time, there are certainly going to be people who remember that series fondly and would love to see it become a movie.
Of course, throwing A24 into the mix would certainly make for a unique sort of adaptation. A24, the studio that has brought us movies like Midsommer and The Tragedy of Macbeth is probably the last one you would expect to make a video game adaptation of any kind, which is part of why it actually sounds sort of cool.
This one certainly seems unlikely to happen, but who knows. Tom Holland is becoming a massive star and with that will come a certain amount of clout. Ryan Reynolds was eventually able to make his dream Deadpool project. Maybe Tom Holland will live his Jak and Daxter dream one day.