Uncharted Director Changing Drake's Back Story

[Logan Westbrook]

Uncharted Director Changing Drake's Back Story

Treasure hunters better beware, because here comes Nathan Drake: International Treasure Cop.

The casting [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105618-Mark-Wahlberg-Confirmed-For-Lead-Role-in-Uncharted-Movie] of Mark Wahlberg in the lead role isn't the only piece of distressing news about the Uncharted [http://www.amazon.com/UNCHARTED-2-Among-Thieves-Playstation-3/dp/B002I0F5I2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291295727&sr=8-1] movie; director David O. Russell has also tweaked the script to give protagonist Nathan Drake a whole new history and motivation.

While the Uncharted games depict Nathan Drake as a Indiana Jones/Mal Reynolds-style treasure hunter and adventurer, Russell's movie will recast him and his hitherto unseen family as some kind of antiquities police. "This idea really turns me on that there's a family that's a force to be reckoned with in the world of international art and antiquities," he said. "[A family] that deals with heads of state and heads of museums and metes out justice."

Russell said that he wanted to have the family dynamic in the movie to provide some solid character content, overlaid over the "bigger, more muscular stage" of an action movie. Russell added that he was almost halfway through writing the script, saying that the work was going remarkably quickly.

The changes to the source material don't necessarily mean that Uncharted is going to be a bad movie, but it sounds like it's not going to be the movie that fans of the games hoped it would be either. Russell is a talented writer and director, however, so perhaps we'll be surprised.

Source: LA Times [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/12/drakes-fortune-mark-wahlberg-nate-drake-movie-david-russell.html] via Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5703567/the-uncharted-movie-doesnt-sound-like-uncharted-at-all]


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[Ldude893]

Oh god, another video-game-to-movie-adaption failure on the horizon. No surprise, really.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Some kind of antiquities police huh?

I remember when Uncharted 1 was garnering criticism for being a bit too much like National Treasure, I didn't realise they were going to try and make the movie even more explicit on this point.

And this is doing even less to my desire to see it, which started out at pretty much nil anyway, and dropped below zero when Fillion was no longer in the main role. Currently this game is about a minus 15 on my scale of movies to see.

 

[The Salty Vulcan]

....Oh F*&k off!!

That was the whole appeal of Uncharted you bloody tossers! The whole matinee approach to the character is what made him so damn likable. It was fantasy! Operating on a logic outside of conventional reality. Do we really NEED another ancient conspiracy ?! NO! Do we even really need Marky Mark either? OF COURSE NOT! I knew this was going to happen! A game fit, practically begging to be made into a film, getting so horrible mangled!!

 

[Trogdor1138]

I knew it would fail badly as soon as Whalberg was cast. Seriously, fuck that guy. Why is he suddenly the go to guy in Hollywood now? He's a horribly bland actor that is always miscast completely, did they forget about Max Payne?

 

[WelshDanny]

Disappointing. If they're going to base a film on a video game they should keep the same backstory. Uncharted is a classic game. They wouldn't go around messing with the backstory of a classic book now would they?

Bad example, maybe they would, but I believe I've made my point.

*smokes pipe*

 

[Secret world leader (shhh)]

HAHAHAHAHA!

This is gonna fail on so many levels. And i'm going to love every second of it.

They can't even translate the most cinematic game there is (apart from dragon's lair)into a good film.

 

[WanderingFool]

There really needs to be a picture to properly realy my displeasure... TO GOOGLE!

This will do...

 

[Oliver Pink]

"Bigger, more muscular stage of a movie."

You know, at first I objected because it seemed like a dreadful insult to gamers everywhere - claiming that Movies were better than Games...

But I take it back - after all, it's an appropriate metaphor. Movies are single-track, like big muscular men who don't bother with petty things like 'education' and 'socialisation', and instead focus on doing the best they can at making themselves Massive blunt instruments.

Whereas games are a lot more versatile, they can choose any number of paths, options and can engage an audience much more effectively through interaction.

Not that there's anything wrong with being a body-builder - far from it! Movies are wonderful, moving things... if done right. But to claim that going from Game-Form to Movie-Form will make the Uncharted experience 'more muscular' just makes my eye twitch.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Maybe they missed the subtitle of the second game...

"Honor Among Thieves". Drake's a thief. A nice guy, but a thief and treasure hunter.

This is a remarkably big shift for Drake's characterization...

 

[EmzOLV]

I just sounds like a film I've kinda seen before now - rather than the game. Bit of a shame but will wait to see what it ends up like before committing a full personal judgement on it

 

[shadyh8er]

Russell added that he was almost halfway through writing the script, saying that the work was going remarkably quickly.

Translation: "They're rushing the thing and just want to make a quick buck."

 

[Eternal_Lament]

So.... If the character of Nathan Drake isn't the same (funny to serious), his job isn't the same (treasure hunter to treasure police), and as such the story will be presumably different (action packed to family values [Drake family values mind you]).....then is even an Uncharted movie anymore?

I'll say this. If there's one thing at this point the director shouldn't do, he shouldn't refer to Drake's previous escapades, otherwise we have a situation similar to the Resident Evil movies (appeared to be stand alone series, but implies that the things that have happened in the games also happened in the movies, despite the impossibility of the situation)

 

[ComicsAreWeird]

So...the movie has nothing to do with the game.Why call it Uncharted? I smell a cash grab.

 

[Mr. Omega]

And that's the final straw for me.
The fact that it's a game-based movie? Prince of Persia, and even the Resident Evil films were ok.
Casting? I draw the line at some point, but this movie isn't at that point. And it could have been cast worse.
Adding stuff that wasn't in the games? Risky territory, but it's not like the games will touch on this subject.
Changing stuff that WAS in the games? Now the movie is looking less like the source. This is almost never a good sign.

Just one of these would have been annoying, but tolerable. The combination of all these, the last two in particular, give us the logical conclusion that this film will piss off the fans of the games.

 

[tk1989]

hahahahaha. That sounds so ridiculously shit its unreal. A family thats seen as some kind of antiquities police keeping governments in check?

EPIC FAIL

 

[Visulth]

I didn't like Uncharted but even I have to say that just sounds horrible and cheesy. A family of treasure police? Seriously?

I was really not liking the changes, but didn't realize truly how absurd they were until you summed it up.

A family of treasure police.

Goddamnit Hollywood.

It just seems games and movies were never meant to be together.

 

[Les Awesome]

THOSE FIENDS!!!!!
how dare they tamper with drakes bland backstory