Movies based on Naughty Dog’s Uncharted and The Last of Us franchises are in the works, but, as is often the case in Hollywood, they aren’t progressing very quickly. Naughty Dog’s creative lead Neil Druckmann sat down with 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg at the D.I.C.E. Summit today in Las Vegas for a conversation about storytelling. Naturally, the question came up about how the Uncharted and Last of Us movies are coming along.
Druckmann said Naughty Dog has had “some conversations” with director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things, Night at the Museum), a person who Druckmann says really “gets it” and “understands where we’re at.” Druckmann went on to say that Naughty Dog’s feelings towards a film adaptation of Uncharted has “evolved” over years.
“We used to just be excited–oh my god, movies are looking at us! There could be an Uncharted movie on the screen, and then as more time passes on, we’re not excited by a direct adaptation of the story we told, because we feel we’ve already told that story very well cinematically, so I don’t know what else you could bring to it.”
Spider-Man actor Tom Holland is confirmed to play a young Nathan Drake in the Uncharted movie. Levy’s Uncharted movie will not be a direct adaptation of any of the four main Uncharted games, but instead it is expected to fill in the gaps with the younger Drake. Beyond that, however, we don’t know any more plot details. One of the scripts was written by The Grey‘s Joe Carnahan–and Druckmann had some things to say about it.
Whatever the case, Druckmann said an Uncharted movie will feel strange to him and some fans because with different actors, it might not feel right. “For me–and I know for Naughty Dog and for a lot of our fans–Nolan North is Nathan Drake. Ashley Johnson is Ellie. Troy Baker is Joel. It would be very disorienting to see someone else in that role.”
As an example, Druckmann said if they were to make a Breaking Bad movie and someone other than Bryan Cranston played Walter White, well, it just “doesn’t make sense” and would “feel so wrong on so many levels.”
Trachtenberg then mentioned the well-received TV show adaptation of the beloved movie Fargo as an example of how do it right. The two agreed that this is different because it has new characters instead of existing ones. “It captured the tone, it captured the world, it expanded up; I love that show. I think that’s the way to do it.”
Also during the talk, Druckmann spoke briefly of the Last of Us film. The script that he worked on at one point was a direct adaptation of the game–and it wasn’t great. “Now, having some separation from it, I look back like–I don’t want that movie to be made,” he said.
The much-anticipated Last of Us sequel, The Last of Us: Part II, is currently in development for PlayStation 4. As for the Uncharted franchise, 2016’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End was the last mainline title in the series to be developed by Naughty Dog and the final one starring Nathan Drake. That being said, Uncharted 5 could be developed by another studio.
The next big video game movie is March’s Tomb Raider, which stars Oscar winner Alicia Vikander in the role of Lara Croft. You can watch the newest trailer here.
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