Earlier this week it was revealed that Sony’s long-gestating Uncharted movie was delayed yet again. The adaptation of the popular video game franchise seems to be cursed at this point. Though this particular project is far from the only one being affected by the situation at hand in Hollywood currently. Now, star Tom Holland has revealed that they were literally on set for the first day of shooting when the plug was pulled.
Tom Holland, known best for his role as Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, recently did an Instagram live chat with Justin Bieber. During the conversation, Bieber asked Holland if any of his projects were affected by the shutdown. At that point, Holland revealed just how close Uncharted was to finally becoming a reality. Here’s what he had to say about it.
“Yeah, we went to work day one. I’m doing this movie called Uncharted, which is based on a video game. And we showed up for our first day of shooting and then they shut us down. I was in Berlin, so I had to come home and now I’m back in London.”
This is a heartbreaking thing to hear. Uncharted has been in the works for years and has been met with one roadblock after another. A revolving door of stars and filmmakers have been attached at various points to bring the adventures of Nathan Drake to life on the big screen. Tom Holland has been attached to the lead role for several years, with Mark Wahlberg on board to play his trusty partner Sully. At one point, Wahlberg was attached to play Nathan Drake himself before Sony shifted gears. Antonio Banderas is also set to star.
Recently, directors such as Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) and Travis Knight (Bumblebee) spent time developing the project. Ruben Fleischer (Venom) was the filmmaker who was finally going to make it happen when the shutdown happened. Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Iron Man, Transformers: The Last Knight) wrote the most recent draft of the script. Speaking further, Tom Holland explained that his preparation wasn’t overly intense, so it wasn’t quite as soul-crushing in that respect.
“I played the video games and I got into shape, but that’s about it. It wasn’t heart and soul on the line for it.”
The Uncharted series debuted in 2007 for the PlayStation 3 with Drake’s Fortune. To date, the games have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, making it one of the most successful video game series of the modern era. The movie had been set for a March 5, 2021, release. However, Sony moved Ghostbusters: After life to that date. Uncharted is now set to arrive in theaters on October 8, 2021. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as further details are made available. Feel free to check out the video from Justin Bieber’s Instagram for yourself.
