‘Uncharted’ Movie Back On Track With ‘Bumblebee’ Director Travis Knight Taking Over
Not long ago, the long-developing adaptation ofUnchartedset up at Sony Pictures hit yet another speed bump by losing directorDan Trachtenberg. The filmmaker behind10 Cloverfield Laneleft the project in August, though no reason was given for his departure. It was the second blow for a Sony project starringTom Hollandafter Sony and Marvel were having trouble negotiating a new deal to share the rights to Spider-Man and keep him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But Sony has fixed both problems.
Hot on the heels of theannouncement of a new dealbetween Sony and Marvel for a thirdSpider-Manmovie produced by Kevin Feige, Sony Pictures is currently in talks withBumblebeedirectorTravis Knightto take over the video game adaptation, and Tom Holland is still slated to star in the movie as adventurer Nathan Drake.
Unchartedis a video game adaptation that has been in the works for a long time. It has cycled through countless filmmakers and always seems to have some kind of trouble. Thankfully, the video game franchise has remained popular, with the fourth entry arriving back in 2016 on PlayStation 4. If you’ve never played, here’s a taste of the game:
These games are great! But as we’ve seen, video game movies are tough to crack, and the constant development problems forUnchartedhaven’t given us much confidence that this movie can break the mold. But maybe a creative mind like Travis Knight can help.
Travis Knight got his start in stop-motion animation on television with shows likeThe PJsandGary & Mike. He rode that wave to feature length stop-motion animation over at LAIKA where he served as vice president of animation, overseeing production on movies likeCoraline, ParaNormanandThe Boxtrolls, as well as taking the opportunity to directKubo and the Two Stringsfor the studio. But last year, he made the jump to live-action blockbusters withBumblebee, and that’s certainly what got him the job here.
What’s great about Knight is that he just got done giving theTransformersfranchise its best entry since the original movie in 2007. He gave it focus, he gave it heart, and he turned it into a sci-fi adventure that felt like it came straight out of the 1980s. Maybe there’s a chance he can do something similar withUnchartedand give us something akin to a great action adventure from decades past. We’re not exactly confident since the script comes fromMen in Black InternationalandTransformers: The Last KnightwritersArt Marcum & Matt Holloway. Granted, the writing duo did give us the first Iron Man, but they’ve yet to give us anything nearly as good since then.
Unchartedcurrently has a release date ofDecember 18, 2020, but we won’t believe it until we see it.
