Uncharted Movie Taps Bumblebee Director

The Uncharted movie which has gained and lost several directors during its development now may have landed its latest talent to guide the movie. Travis Knight, the director of Bumblebee and Kubo and The Two Strings, is in talks with Sony Pictures to direct the Uncharted movie, Deadline reports. News of Knight being on board to direct the film follows the leave of former director Dan Trachtenberg.

Knight’s role on the Sony film hasn’t been confirmed yet, but if the talks play out and he’s added to the movie, he’ll be the latest in a line of several directors to take on the job. Shawn Levy was previously in charge of the film before leaving the production in 2018, and Trachtenberg exited the position not long ago. Per Deadline’s sources, the plans were to have the film get a new director by the end of the summer, so the news of talks taking place lines up with those reports.

This new movie is planned to be an adaptation of Sony’s Uncharted series that found huge success as an exclusive on the PlayStation platform. It was also said not long ago that this movie will be the first film released by PlayStation Productions, the new unit from Sony Interactive Entertainment that was created to find appropriate ways to adapt the company’s biggest franchises for TV and film.

Tom Holland is said to still be on board for the role of Nathan Drake in the film. Drake was the main character in the Uncharted series, and while previous talks from Trachtenberg said the adaptation would include the protagonist and other characters from the series, the goal was not to copy the games. It’s unclear how much of that, if any, has changed now that the director’s position is reportedly being filled by Knight.

The Uncharted series was developed for PlayStation by Naughty Dog, the developers behind the upcoming game The Last of Us Part II. The most recent game in the Uncharted series is Uncharted: The Lost Legacy which was released back in 2017.

Sony’s Uncharted movie is scheduled to begin production early next year and will head to theaters on December 18, 2020.