A month ago, we reported that Mark Wahlberg would be starring as Nathan Drake in David O. Russell‘s adaptation of the bestselling video game series Uncharted. Now, ScreenRant reports (via Joystiq) that Justin Richmond, game director for Uncharted 3 has dismissed all the earlier reports as rumors:
“First of all, all that stuff was denied by David O. Russell,” Richmond said. “He actually called us up and was like, ‘I don’t know what these guys are talking about.'”
So not only is Wahlberg not confirmed as Drake, the “family dynamic” angle which had excited Wahlberg and Russell – while alienating many gamers – sounds like more of a contemplation by Russell than any concrete storyline.
It’s certainly not a surprise that these Hollywooders have trotted this Uncharted cart well before the horse. It could also be very good news for fans who are almost rabid to see Firefly star Nathan Fillion in the role, rather than Wahlberg.
Now, while fan-made frenzy might help movies like, say Snakes on a Plane add a line of dialogue everyone wanted to see (despite the fact that almost no one saw the actual movie), with a firebrand like David O. Russell, there’s no guarantee he’ll acquiesce to what the fans want. Check out the video at the end of this post by TFS’ Jordan Raup for evidence of just how unconcerned Russell is about the fan-community’s preference of Fillion.
Still, when Joystiq passed their choice of Fillion for the role to Justin Richmond, the game director responded:
“Message received.”
It’s still way too early to accurately speculate on the future of this project. Russell has been attached for a bout a month and a half at this point, and I’m sure that Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer‘s script is already being torn apart by the creative executives – if it’s even done yet.
The last film Russell directed with anything remotely in common with Uncharted was Three Kings, and while he showed real action-adventure chops, his choices since then reveal an impatience with studio meddling and careful deliberation on what he does with his projects. For a big, potential franchise like this, I seriously doubt Sony will tolerate too much auteur-ism. This story is definitely not over yet.
So who do you want as Nathan Drake? Mark Wahlberg? Nathan Fillion? Someone else?