UPDATED: ‘R’ Rated Uncharted Filming Within The Year

UPDATED: Here’s an update on this movie.  It looks like it’s going to be an R rated venture.  In fact it’s going to be rated R with ‘fucking crazy action sequences‘.  It’s odd, Uncharted would not have been the first franchise I would’ve thought would’ve been a violent adaptation, but it looks like they’re going for something different here and I’m not complaining.

Especially since we dodged that Mark Wahlberg/David O. Russell bullet, the movie they were planning sounded like complete shit.

PREVIOUSLY: Everyone who has played the games knows that the Uncharted series is kind of like a video game version of Indiana Jones.  And although the movie has suffered delays, new director Shawn Levy says it’ll begin soon and be ‘grittier’ than Indiana Jones.

I’ve been interested in this project for years. I’ve played and loved every iteration of the game. I think it’s largely a popularly accepted notion that it’s as cinematic a game as we’ve had, maybe ever, certainly of late. And it’s cinematic in that it’s not only wildly visual, but it’s really rooted in character and a very specific tone and a sense of fun, right? When is the last great, fun, fucking action-dynamic, treasure-hunting movie? Right? It’s not Indiana Jones, it’s not National Treasure; it’s very specific, it’s all kind of anchored in Nathan’s tone.

So I’ve been interested in it, and I’ve just been quietly letting people know I’ve been interested in it, but other people have been involved, I’ve been busy, and a moment finally appeared recently where I was like, “Me! Okay, me!” Sony and the producers involved were like, “Yeah, that actually makes perfect sense.” I’m like, “Yeah! That’s what I’ve been saying for a little while.”

I am unabashedly thrilled to be making that next year.

And, Levy will indeed be tackling Uncharted within the year:

Yes, that’s my next project. Normally, as a director, you’re attached to something—I know of at least one director in this room—it’s like, the dance we always do is, “Oh, I’m attached to this,” and then you look at my IMDb page and it looks like I’m making 19 movies.

Uncharted, I am not messing around. I am so committed to this thing and I’m in it on the script level with Joe Carnahan, who knows what he’s doing; that’s been a really frickin’ fun collaboration.

Levy Also speaks about Joe Carnahan’s recent words and the ‘Indiana Jones’ vibe, or something more gritty?

Yeah, I always feel like I have a big mouth; Joe has the biggest mouth, it’s awesome. Joe is so entertaining in real life and on social media because he’s fearless, he’s candid, and I do think that where he’s telling the truth is that, Indiana Jones, people compare Uncharted to it because both are treasure-hunting movies, but Indy was academic, there was nobility and a kind of well-intentioned … he actually was heroic whereas Drake, the last thing he would ever call himself or be called is heroic. And if he has heroic qualities within him, they’re in spite of his rogue nature.

So maybe from a million miles away it’ll have those Indy elements, but it’s very much a much grittier, more naturalistic, real-world, contemporary … that’s the other thing, Indiana Jones is a period piece, right? We always kind of forget that it’s not set in this world, in this now, whereas Uncharted will be.