After many years of false starts and a lot of creative people trying their hand at getting it done, Sony’sUnchartedmovie finally looks to be in good shape. Production is expected to start this summer now that the mostrecent draft of the script, which was written byThe GreydirectorJoe Carnahan, is finished. Specific details on the movie have been a little sparse, but now the writer has opened up about his take on the popular video game and he didn’t pull any punches. It looks likeUnchartedis going to be an R-rated, full on crazy action movie.
Joe Carnahanrecently spoke withComingsoonabout his script forUncharted, which he reportedly finished last month. When talking about his approach, he revealed that the movie was definitely not written as a PG-13 version and that he wrote it the way he felt it needed to be done. Here is what he had to say.
“When I wrote “Uncharted,” I didn’t spare the rod. I wrote it the way the video game is. They swear in the game, they’re kinda foul-mouthed and I kept all that stuff intact and I definitely didn’t write it as a “PG-13” movie, I wrote it the way that movie should be written.”
Movies likeDeadpooland the upcomingLoganhave proved that big-budget, highly-anticipated movies can work with an R-rating. Many very popular action movies over the years, such asThe MatrixandPredator, were R-rated and were very successful as well.Carnahanwent so far as to say that PG-13 is a “cop out.” So don’t expect that to change down the road, unless Sony throws out his script. One of the biggest comparisons that is always made when talking aboutUnchartedis withIndiana Jones. When asked about how he worked around essentially remaking the classicHarrison Fordaction-adventure in the process, he shed some light on how this movie will be different, while also giving us a window into what theUnchartedmovie will be like. Here is how he explained it.
“Listen, I’m a huge Indiana Jones fan, which was one of my interests in it and you have to remember you’ve got Sully as well, so it’s more of a buddy situation than just Drake solo. You have this kind of Hope & Crosby, “Road to Morocco” kind of thing, so it’s not a straight Indy lift. Drake is not a guy who likes museums. He thinks they’re all crooked. Curators are “thieves,” the guys in the Louvre and The Met are thieves and despicable. He’s a treasure hunter, not an archaeologist. He doesn’t have Indiana Jones' idea of pure faith in archaeology. That’s not the way he thinks. It differentiates, and in the script there are deliberate differentiations. He has a line where he says, “They’re gonna be looking at real booby traps, not rolling boulder bullsh*t.” (laughs) [“Raiders of the Lost Ark”] is still arguably my favorite movie of all-time, but it was necessary to create those distinctions. I think Amy Hennig did it when she wrote the game. She made Drake very much an anti-Indiana Jones, you know? Don’t forget, for that first game after that pirate attack, Drake and Sully leave Elena behind, they dump her. Indiana Jones would never do something like that. That’s a rogue act, so she was declaring very early on who that guy was. He was not Jones, he was not to be confused with that guy.”
It is clear thatJoe Carnahanknows the source material well but, perhaps more importantly, it sounds like he did what he felt was best for the movie. He clearly isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers, as evidenced by the recent announcement that he will be remakingThe RaidwithCaptain America: The Winter SoldierstarFrank Grillo. It turns out that Sony and Naughty Dog, the video game company behindUncharted, felt the same way and pretty much let him do what he wanted with it. That resulted in some seriously crazy action, according toCarnahan.
“No, they let me kinda do my thing. I probably wrote four of the biggest, f**in' craziest action sequences I think I’ve ever written in that movie. I used theUncharted gamesas a template but not using any one specifically, because those sequences have already been done beautifully. There’s no point in just transposing them to film, you’ve gotta come up with new sht, so that’s what I did. It was a great challenge but it was a lot of fun.”
Hollywood has yet to crack the code on video game movies, butJoe Carnahanis certainly saying all of the right things. The next and most important question becomes, who will playNathan Drake? Hopefully, we’ll find out soon enough, butMark Wahlberghas already pretty much taken himself out of the running and fan favoriteNathan Fillionis probably a bit too old at this point. Sony has hiredReal Steeldirector andStranger ThingsproducerShawn Levyto directUncharted. Unfortunately,Carnahanis tied up with projects likeBad Boys 3, which are preventing him from directing the movie as well. Sony has yet to set a new release date forUnchartedafter pulling the movie from their2017 release schedule, but if the movie does in fact shoot this summer, expect to see it land sometime in 2018.
