Last week, Uncharted 3 game director Justin Richmond attempted to debunk reports that director David O. Russell would be introducing a “family dynamic” (which would possible include the casting of Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci as the father and uncle of Drake) in his big screen adaptation of the popular video game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. The video game director also claimed that “Mark Wahlberg isn’t anywhere near to being confirmed to play Nathan Drake either.” At the time, I wrote Richmond off as a someone involved with the video game property who clearly wasn’t up to date with the development of the film adaptation. Both of the stories Richmond claimed false came from the mouths of Russell and Wahlberg in interviews with respected publications. While Wahlberg might not yet be signed, I have no doubt that David wants Mark for the role. This is confirmed today by Wahlberg’s response.
Read More »
.
Please Recommend /Film on Facebook
Fans have not been happy with the plot details and casting David O. Russell‘s big screen adaptation of the popular video game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Not only did Russell seem like an odd choice as a director (the closest thing to an action movie he’s directed is Three Kings), but Mark Wahlberg seemed like an odd choice to play the lead character Nathan Drake (fans have been campaigning for Nathan Fillion for years now, and fans have even confronted O Russell in person about the casting announcement). And then comes the rumors that the director is interested in having Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci play the father and uncle of Drake, and a choice quote in the LA Times from the filmmaker (who was half way through writing a draft of the script):
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 … [a family] that deals with heads of state and heads of museums and metes out justice… We’ll have the family dynamic, which we’ve done in a couple of movies now… And then you take that and put it on the bigger, more muscular stage of an international action picture, but also put all the character stuff in it. That’s a really cool idea to me.
So in other words, O. Russell’s plans seem to stray far from the source material. As you can imagine, fans of the game series were not happy. Well, the director of the latest Uncharted 3 video game says otherwise… but what does he know?
Read More »
When it was revealed last month that David O. Russell had found a leading man for his video game adaptation Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, fans went into an uproar because Russell had hired Mark Wahlberg instead of fan favorite Nathan Fillion.
A fan was videotaped approaching Russell at a recent screening of The Fighter at the Arclight Theatre in Hollywood, to see if the filmmaker would reconsider Fillion for the role. Even after being told by his agent that he watched an audition tape sent in by the Firefly star, Russell still has no idea who Fillion is and seems to have no knowledge of the internet campaign to get the actor cast in the big screen video game adaptation.
The whole interaction is just really embarrassing. But I have a feeling that Russell’s choice in Wahlberg is likely to haunt him for the next couple years as he encounters fans from around the world. Watch the video now embedded after the jump.
Read More »
The idea that David O. Russell might direct the video game adaptation Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune seemed rather odd. Sure, he’s done an actionish-movie (Three Kings) and Uncharted is one of the more character-oriented action games out there. But it still seemed like a weird fit.
Then news came out that the director is interested in having Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci play the father and uncle of Drake (Mark Wahlberg), which seemed to put the film a lot closer to the films of Mr. Russell’s past, which dealt with family dynamics in a dramatic, often uncomfortable way. (Even The Fighter, about brothers Mickey Ward and Dickie Eklund, has this angle.)
Now we’ve got more info on Uncharted, including a couple details on just how the story will be expanded from the one in the original game. Read More »
Sometimes a healthy skepticism for rumor makes one look foolish when one turns out to be true. Hopefully you can’t blame me for chuckling a bit when we heard that David O. Russell wants Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci to join the cast of his video game adaptation Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. But according to Mark Wahlberg, who says he’s set for the lead role, that’s exactly who the director is hoping to land. Read More »
If there ever was a pitch perfect piece of has-to-happen casting, it would be Nathan Fillion as Nathan Drake. Fillion is the dashing, charismatic star of the current television show Castle who is best known for his role as the cocky, confident Captain Malcolm ‘Mal’ Reynolds in Joss Whedon’s Firefly universe. Drake is the star of the Uncharted video game series (seen above), which is about a cocky, confident relic hunter in the mold of Indiana Jones, armed with a quicker tongue and a bigger penchant for violence. Well, last week, after Three Kings director David O. Russell officially signed to rewrite and direct a big screen adaptation of the first Uncharted video game, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, for Sony, Fillion sent out the bat signal to his 650,000 or so Twitter followers to campaign that he get the role. Hit the jump for more. Read More »
This was pretty much a given. Ever since the Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees director was announced as being in the running to direct the adaptation of the video game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, the choice seemed too odd to ever manifest itself as anything more than a fun discussion piece. And as the fates would have it, that’s now the case.
David O. Russell won’t be directing Drake’s Fortune. Learn more about this development after the break. Read More »
You might remember back in June that Sony hired a screenwriter, Kyle Ward, to develop a film based on the PlayStation 3 game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Our friends at LatinoReview are now reporting that Kyle’s deal fell apart at the last minute because Sony were unwilling to wait around, possibly as long as a year, as Ward was contractually obligated to pen Hitman 2.
They have instead hired the writing team Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, whose screenwriting credits include Sahara, the horrible adaptation of A Sound of Thunder, and the upcoming Dylan Dog adaptation Dead of Night and the Marcus Nispel remake of Conan. Donnelly and Oppenheimer’s produced projects aren’t too impressive, but they must have impressed someone to get attached to Conan and now the fast tracked video game adaptation Drake’s Fortune.
Read More »
