For years and years now, there have been attempts to get an Uncharted movie off the ground – an adaptation of the massively popular PlayStation game franchise that itself felt inspired by adventure movies like Indiana Jones and the various incarnations of Tomb Raider. The filmmaker who’s finally managed to get it done is Venom’s Ruben Fleischer, taking the tales of wise-cracking tomb-raider Nathan Drake and turning them into an origin story, starring Tom Holland as a younger incarnation of the character, with Mark Wahlberg as his mentor Sully. Take a look at the action-packed first trailer.
It’s a curious thing – on the one hand, there is a lot of Uncharted in the trailer, with a plane-plummet sequence ripped right from the third game in the series. And yet even fans of Holland, who seems to be as watchable as ever here, probably wouldn’t claim he bears much resemblance (physically or in characterisation) with the games’ leading man, whose personality is very much at the forefront of the franchise.
Here’s the official synopsis, which makes it clear that this one is the “first treasure hunting adventure” of Nathan Drake. “Based on one of the best-selling, most critically acclaimed video game series of all time, Uncharted introduces audiences to the young street-smart Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) and showcases his first treasure hunting adventure with wisecracking partner Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg). In an action-adventure epic that spans the globe, the two go in dangerous pursuit of “the greatest treasure never found” while also tracking clues that may lead to Nathan’s long-lost brother.
Will it live up to the (low) bar set by previous video game adaptations? Is there any chance this will be as promising as the upcoming series based on Naughty Dog’s other blockbuster video game property, The Last Of Us? Will people buy into Holland as Nathan Drake? We’ll find out when Uncharted finally hits cinemas on 18 February.