In a bizarre turn of events, Deadline has revealed that upcoming Spider-Man Homecoming star Tom Holland has been cast to play Nathan Drake in Sony Pictures’ impending Uncharted film. The movie, which is apparently being redrafted as a prequel to the hit games, is being directed by Shawn Levy and produced by Charles Roven, Avi Arad, and Alex Gartner. Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman was reportedly inspired to make these changes after seeing the latest cut of the Spider-Man film.
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While there will certainly be some division among series fans as to whether Holland will make a suitable Nathan Drake or not, they will undoubtedly be glad that the movie has finally gained some traction. It’s been suspended in purgatory for some time, drifting from one script to the next. We were beginning to wonder if it would ever come to fruition, but it seems Holland will be providing the motivation for Sony to kick things into gear. Sony is reportedly seeking a new writer to pen the young Nathan Drake’s story as he grows into the charismatic thief that we all know and love.
As stated, the film is being produced as a prequel to the games, and will feature a younger Nathan Drake as he meets veteran fortune hunter Sullivan. It will be important for fans of the games to keep this in mind, since Holland doesn’t immediately seem to be the “Nathan Drake” type, if you get what we mean. That’s not a shot at Holland by any means, but if you’ll take a look at the image above, you’ll see that Nathan Drake has a defined look and swagger that has been ingrained in our minds (and hearts) since the first Uncharted debuted on the PS3 back in 2007.
At this time we have no idea what has become of the rumored R-rated script from Joe Carnahan. Carnahan was extremely enthusiastic about where the project was going, and hinted that the folks at Naughty Dog were thrilled as well. Neil Druckmann refuted this, stating that no one at Naughty Dog had seen anything of the script. From the sound of things, Sony will be starting from scratch. We’ll keep you updated as soon as we learn more.