Was Tom Holland The Right Fit For Uncharted Role?

[hanselthecaretaker]

Or has this project always been a misunderstood disaster waiting to happen, like *I lost count of* so many other VG-to-film adaptions?


"I haven’t seen (Uncharted), so I don’t know if I succeeded in (being a 'tough guy')", continues Holland. "But it was an important lesson learned, because, at times, it was less about 'land a mark and go through this scene' and more about 'land a mark, stand like this and see my bulging biceps'. It was a mistake and is something that I will probably never do again."

Tom Holland candidly expresses misgivings over his Uncharted role

‘It was an important lesson learned’ Perhaps no video game adaptation has struggled to get onto the silver screen harder...

www.destructoid.com

Oy vey. Does this even really sound like Uncharted? Has he played the games? Nate is far from ever being presented as a typical muscle-bound tough guy. I’m wondering how the director was steering this ship. Let’s not even go there with Mark Wahlberg as Sully.

 

[happyninja42]

I mean he LOOKS a lot like Drake in that outfit. But looks shouldn't be the primary reason to pick someone to play a role. Drake to me is nothing more than just a factory stock, action movie, snarky protagonist. So it's hardly a challenge to find someone to fit that bill. It's about as standard as they come.

 

[Casual Shinji]

It's less Tom Holland being the right fit and more whether a movie adaptation is the right fit. The more cinematic and realistic a game looks the harder it ironically is going to be to translate it to the silver screen. Holland would've been a fine Drake if they allow/direct his boyish charm to shine through.

 

[SilentPony]

I mean there's that new movie Cherry coming out where Tom Holland plays an veteran army medic turned drug addicted tough guy bank robber, and all the reviews say he's hilariously miscast. That he's a baby faced nice guy trying to be a war scarred, PTSD criminal. One review I read compared it to Kindergarten Cop in terms of cringe.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think Nate has a confidence to him that I just don't get from Tom Holland. Only reason he got cast is he's hot right now.

 

[happyninja42]

I mean there's that new movie Cherry coming out where Tom Holland plays an veteran army medic turned drug addicted tough guy bank robber, and all the reviews say he's hilariously miscast. That he's a baby faced nice guy trying to be a war scarred, PTSD criminal. One review I read compared it to Kindergarten Cop in terms of cringe.

See the thing is, I can't really agree with this, since the entire Uncharted series is nothing more than just "archeology action movie: the video game" as far as the tropes and story elements it utilizes. So it already IS an action film. They don't need to re-translate it back into film. It's already a game adaptation OF a film genre. They just need to make an action film, with relics, and ruins, and people for him to shoot, and a crochety mentor/ally, and a hot love interest, and boom, elements are in place. And unsurprisingly, all of those elements, are already so common in the genre, as to be forgettable.

 

[happyninja42]

I think Nate has a confidence to him that I just don't get from Tom Holland. Only reason he got cast is he's hot right now.

I think it's also because he's young, so they can potentially milk the franchise with him as the lead for years, if it does well.

 

[gorfias]

I have to wonder if there is an agenda to it? You've got a fairly tiny looking fellow playing Paul Atreides in Dune. Played Henry V. "Wayne" on Amazon Prime, another tiny dude, beats up many much larger people. Now you have little Tom Holland (5'7" 140 lbs) playing someone who I think we were to be reminded of the very large Nathan Fillion (6'2" 215 lbs). And Gina Carrano is cancled. They trying to tell us something?

 

[happyninja42]

I have to wonder if there is an agenda to it? You've got a fairly tiny looking fellow playing Paul Atreides in Dune.

Well I never saw Paul as a muscle bound dude anyway. Especially after living in a desert for years, on a restricted diet and water supply, it's far more likely he would be a thin and wiry kind of build, than an MMA fighter. Plus all of his training was always about predictive battle, not brute force, so again to me it's always checked out.

 

[bluegate]

As long as one remembers that an adaption doesn't have to be 1:1, there's probably a very entertaining movie in there

Fuck, how much Marvel and DC drivel has there been these past 10+ years? Time for some "fresh" adaptation blood.

 

[Chimpzy]

Well I never saw Paul as a muscle bound dude anyway. Especially after living in a desert for years, on a restricted diet and water supply, it's far more likely he would be a thin and wiry kind of build, than an MMA fighter. Plus all of his training was always about predictive battle, not brute force, so again to me it's always checked out.

Yup, remember Timothée Chalamet is supposed to play young Paul, and he's not described as large or imposing in the books. Some examples:

"“Is he not small for his age, Jessica?” the old woman asked.”
- Reverend Mother Mohiam

“Beside the man walked a youth with the same dark hair, but rounder in the face. The youth seemed small for the fifteen years Kynes knew him to have.”
- Liet Kynes

“The Emperor was studying Feyd-Rautha, seeing the heavy shoulders, the thick muscles. He turned to look at Paul—a stringy whipcord of a youth, not as desiccated as the Arrakeen natives, but with ribs there to count, and sunken in the flanks so that the ripple and gather of muscles could be followed under the skin.”
- Emperor Shaddam IV

​

In short, small as a boy, fit but skinny as a young man. I'd actually call Chalamet a pretty good physical match for young Paul. Facial features don't really fit, but the right type of build and hair. The typical Hollywood crossfit beefcake look is Feyd-Rautha or Duncan Idaho.

 

[SilentPony]

See the thing is, I can't really agree with this, since the entire Uncharted series is nothing more than just "archeology action movie: the video game" as far as the tropes and story elements it utilizes. So it already IS an action film. They don't need to re-translate it back into film. It's already a game adaptation OF a film genre. They just need to make an action film, with relics, and ruins, and people for him to shoot, and a crochety mentor/ally, and a hot love interest, and boom, elements are in place. And unsurprisingly, all of those elements, are already so common in the genre, as to be forgettable.

But part of the problem is he looks so young and people associate him with a high schooler. When I see him jumping around saving artifacts and punching Nazis, I don't think Wow there's a proper inheritor to Indiana Jones, I think Wow his chaperones for his school trip are going to be pissed.
Tom Holland doesn't have the presence of a stand alone action star that also isn't a high schooler.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

"As soon as you start worrying about 'Do I look good in this shot?' acting becomes something other than playing a character. I think there are elements of my performance in Uncharted where I kind of fell under that spell of being 'I want to look good now. I want this to be my cool moment'. I had to play this very tough, very stoic guy - basically be Mark Wahlberg. My character is supposed to be a fucking action hero in this moment!"

Huh.

 

[happyninja42]

But part of the problem is he looks so young and people associate him with a high schooler. When I see him jumping around saving artifacts and punching Nazis, I don't think Wow there's a proper inheritor to Indiana Jones, I think Wow his chaperones for his school trip are going to be pissed.
Tom Holland doesn't have the presence of a stand alone action star that also isn't a high schooler.

*shrugs* I mean he's actually 24 years old. I don't recall how old Drake was supposed to be in the first game, but...I just don't really care? This might be a prequel setup film, if they are actually that worried about him looking young, to explain why he appears younger than source, and again, let him age into the franchise as they release movies every few years.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I have to wonder if there is an agenda to it? You've got a fairly tiny looking fellow playing Paul Atreides in Dune. Played Henry V. "Wayne" on Amazon Prime, another tiny dude, beats up many much larger people. Now you have little Tom Holland (5'7" 140 lbs) playing someone who I think we were to be reminded of the very large Nathan Fillion (6'2" 215 lbs). And Gina Carrano is cancled. They trying to tell us something?

Are... you trying to tell us something?

Granted Timothée Chalamet is a downgrade from the very masculine portrayal of Kyle MacLaclan.

 

[SilentPony]

SNIP

God remember those days when no one had any muscle tone, and the ideal male body was best described as "cooked spaghetti"...

 

[Casual Shinji]

God remember those days when no one had any muscle tone, and the ideal male body was best described as "cooked spaghetti"...

Even Indiana Jones looked like lean chicken compared to how blown up actors in action movies look today.

 

[SilentPony]

Even Indiana Jones looked like lean chicken compared to how blown up actors in action movies look today.

I think that's part of the reason Arnold Schwarzenegger was such a stand out, because it certainly wasn't his acting or the quality of his movies...

 

[Casual Shinji]

I think that's part of the reason Arnold Schwarzenegger was such a stand out, because it certainly wasn't his acting or the quality of his movies...

Well, yes and no. It's not like there haven't been big muscly guys in movies before Arnold. And even other big muscly guys like Jesse Ventura or Hulk Hogan never made it big in the movies. Arnold just has a particular charm to his screen presence because of how he talks and how he acts, ontop of him being a huge, swole dude. And I mean Predator, Terminator, Terminator 2, Total Recall, True Lies are pretty damn good in my opinion. Even the first Conan harnesses Arnold's abilities very well.

 

[gorfias]

Are... you trying to tell us something?

Granted Timothée Chalamet is a downgrade from the very masculine portrayal of Kyle MacLaclan.

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They really need an LOL button on this site. Was this really a publicity still? I don't think you saw his shirt in the movie looking anything like that.

ITMT: I looked for a physical description of Paul. Other than him being 15 when he goes out into the desert? Nada. Maybe if I keep looking.

Even Indiana Jones looked like lean chicken compared to how blown up actors in action movies look today.

In the 1980s, they looked for real action "actors" for rolls like the ones Chuck Norris got. Somewhere by the 1990s someone asked, can we take real actors and get them trained and athletic, like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix. It does work better. Can you imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Batman rather than Christian Bale?