Uncharted movie will be the 'Anti-Indiana Jones'

Sony Pictures has had high hopes for its big screen adaptation of hit video game ‘Uncharted’ for some time, and last week hired Shawn Levy to finally get it off the ground.

Joe Carnahan, the project’s previous director and current writer, has been discussing the film’s potential - describing the action-adventure as the “anti-'Indiana Jones’”.

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'Uncharted’ is a PlayStation series starring charming adventurer and roguish type Nathan Drake, whose love of history and thirst for treasure often leads him to trouble.

In an interview with Collider, Carnahan discussed meeting Levy for the first time and sang his praises before launching into why an Uncharted movie has so much potential.

“We both have tremendous fondness for 'Raiders [of the Lost Ark’]… I can tell you this: what I’ve written is very anti-Indy in the sense of [Nathan Drake being a] guy that loves museums and wants to preserve these artifacts. He’s not! He’s a thief and he’s a grifter, and he’s a scourge. He and [friend and mentor] Sully are not good guys but they’re better than the bad guys.

"They are certainly rogues, and certainly don’t have a problem, even in the first game he just kind of dump Elena [another lead character] and it’s interesting.”

Carnahan, who left the project as director to focus on 'Bad Boys For Life’ (“I’m too deep into 'Bad Boys’ and I really wanna see that through) also addressed the stigma attached to video game movies.

His belief is that you can’t stick too closely to the source material to try and appease fans, but rather find out how to make the series work in a new medium and not be afraid to change things up.

To make his point, Carnahan revealed how Stephen Cannell , creator of TV series 'The A-Team’ approached him ahead of his 2010 big-screen remake and offered some advice.

”[He said] to me, 'Listen, if you wanna make B.A. Baracus a white woman, you should do that.’ He didn’t have this sense of, no I think that’d probably have exploded in my face, but this is the guy that created him and he understood that you need to break with tradition sometimes to tell compelling stories.“

Moving back on to what this means for 'Uncharted’, he said: "It’s just making a great movie and trying to put as much of the game in as you can and the sensibilities of making Drake and Sully and so on, and beyond that, just do something original and fun. Roll the dice, like we have to do on anything.

"There are no assurances, and there certainly are very few hedging your bets when it comes to making movies. So I really believe that. Just be original. Do your best. Try to check the boxes you can, but beyond that don’t get wrapped up.”

Sony has been discussing an Uncharted movie for years, with numerous stars and directors attached to and then leaving the project. When news broke that Levy was on board to direct, Deadline’s report said that the project is now being fast-tracked to release.

Picture Credits: Sony / Disney