In a shocking turn of events, multiple Academy Award-nominated director David O. Russell will not be making a film based on a videogame. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune once had Mark Wahlberg attached and Robert DeNiro rumored to star, but they’re probably gone too. We’ve now reached the part of the sitcom towards the end, after the main character has learned a valuable lesson and decided he actually doesn’t want to be a professional pie-eating contest judge, and everything goes back to normal.
Russell had seemed excited about the Columbia Pictures project, speaking frequently and enthusiastically about it as he made the rounds to promote “The Fighter” during awards season. But creative differences between him and Sony developed and the sides parted amicably, insiders say.
The creative difference being “this is a videogame movie” and “I direct real movies”, I assume.
Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer penned the first draft of “Uncharted,” which Sony is still very high on, though the studio has already begun a search for another scribe. While there has never been talent formally attached to “Uncharted,” Russell had been looking to reteam with “The Fighter” star Mark Wahlberg; project was also rumored to co-star Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. But with a new writer and director coming aboard, producers Avi Arad, Ari Arad, Charles Roven and Alex Gartner will likely start from scratch. [Variety]
DAMN YOU, O. RUSSELL! YOU’VE ARONOFSKY’D THIS ENTIRE PROJECT! That’s what we call it when an acclaimed director pretends for a few months that he wants to direct some studio exec’s brilliant plan for an Air Bud reboot or a Night at the Museum set at the Slushy factory, develops a relationship with the studio, and then splits to direct the real project he was planning to do all along. Looking forward to finding out what that is in this case. In the meantime, keep your phone handy, Brett Ratner.
Aw, he thinks the phone is in his pants but he’s already holding it up to his ear! “So this Unsharted, is it like a wish-fulfillment story?”