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What Derailed Russell's Uncharted?
Fans almost universally rejoiced yesterday when they learned that writer-director David O. Russell had left Sony's film adaptation of the video game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.
Gamers were appalled at some of Russell's comments about his take on the property, particularly his idea of turning Nathan Drake's tale into more of a family story about a clan of treasure hunting adventurers. Now it appears that the story the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind The Fighter cooked up for Uncharted may have been behind his amicable departure.
According to The Los Angeles Times, Russell's screenplay went "in a different direction than studio Sony wanted. Russell had already turned in a script, but it was a script so long and so ambitious that it was at least partly responsible for the studio and him parting ways, according to two people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to talk about it publicly. (Sony declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for Russell.) Among the many flourishes Russell had added were a bevy of characters not in the video game."
The Times says Sony is still eager to make the movie, and will go out for a new writer and director to work off of an initial draft by Sahara's Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer.
The paper adds that with Russell gone it's likely that so too is his choice for Drake, Mark Wahlberg, and that the movie certainly won't be out next summer as some had anticipated.
Source: IGN
Gamers were appalled at some of Russell's comments about his take on the property, particularly his idea of turning Nathan Drake's tale into more of a family story about a clan of treasure hunting adventurers. Now it appears that the story the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind The Fighter cooked up for Uncharted may have been behind his amicable departure.
According to The Los Angeles Times, Russell's screenplay went "in a different direction than studio Sony wanted. Russell had already turned in a script, but it was a script so long and so ambitious that it was at least partly responsible for the studio and him parting ways, according to two people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to talk about it publicly. (Sony declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for Russell.) Among the many flourishes Russell had added were a bevy of characters not in the video game."
The Times says Sony is still eager to make the movie, and will go out for a new writer and director to work off of an initial draft by Sahara's Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer.
The paper adds that with Russell gone it's likely that so too is his choice for Drake, Mark Wahlberg, and that the movie certainly won't be out next summer as some had anticipated.
Source: IGN