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Seth Gordon may have a new film out, the action-comedy Back in Action, starring Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz, but he's been reflecting on one project that meant a lot to him that, unfortunately for him, never came to fruition. Speaking with Collider's Steve Weintraub while promoting Back in Action, Gordon revealed the plans he had for his version of Uncharted, his opinion on the eventual 2022 film starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, and why Sony pulled the plug on his original plan. Spoiler Alert: it was out of his hands.
Gordon’s version of Uncharted, developed in the mid-2010s, was set to feature a tone and story more closely tied to the original games, with early rumors suggesting actors like Chris Pratt were being considered for the role of Nathan Drake. However, the combination of the Sony hack, the departure of original Uncharted creator Amy Hennig, and the decision to pivot to a younger Nathan Drake story with Tom Holland meant that Gordon’s iteration never made it past the pre-production stage.
"There's a fair bit of it, actually, of the work we did. It's my production designer, the same production designer who did this movie. So, I brought him in, and a fair bit of what we worked on was in there. But it's one of those things — Sony got hacked. That totally trashed the version that I was working on. A bunch of stuff leaked. Amy [Hennig] was out, Tom [Holland] came in. Everything changed."
The Sony hack Gordon referenced, for those unaware, was the infamous 2014 cybersecurity breach, which not only disrupted multiple projects in development at the studio but also exposed sensitive information and internal emails, leading to major shakeups across the board and caused extreme embarrassment for a number of top level execs at the company. Sadly for him, Gordon’s Uncharted was caught in the crossfire, forcing Sony to reimagine the project entirely without him.
What Does Seth Gordon Think of 'Uncharted'?
The long-awaited feature film adaptation of Uncharted did eventually arrive in 2022, directed by Ruben Fleischer, with Tom Holland playing a younger Nathan Drake in something of an origin story, while Mark Wahlberg played Sully — sans mustache, one of the bigger controversies. While the film had a mixed critical reception, sitting at just 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, it was a financial success, grossing just over $400 million off a $120 million budget, which should have been enough to set up a sequel. The current status of the sequel, however, remains up in the air, despite Wahlberg saying the script was ready early last year. Despite the overhaul, Gordon has nothing but praise for the final film and those involved:
"So, I actually was psyched with what they made, though. I wasn't bitter, butt-hurt, sour grapes over there. It was more, 'Good job.' That was an ambitious, cool thing that they made, and I'm an enormous fan, obviously, of the guy I've worked with so many times, production designer Shepherd Frankel. I thought he killed it. That was a very ambitious undertaking."
Back in Action is streaming now on Netflix. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Back in Action
Director Seth Gordon
English (US) ·