"Uncharted: Drake's Fortune: The Motion Picture" (1 Viewer)

[Chris Farmer]

Looks like this piece of crap is going nowhere any time soon.


http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118037657



Sounds like Sony told Russell that what he was proposing wasn't Uncharted in any way, shape, or form and refused to let it go forward.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Are you calling Russell a piece of crap or the potential film a piece of crap? Because the story in the game can easily make a good movie - it practically already is.

 

[Zack Gibbs]

^^He was clearly calling the film Russell intended to make crap, which had little to do with anything from the games.


Read about this (Russell leaving the project) a while back, great news.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Yeah, this is good news. I didn't like a thing a heard about what this guy wanted to do. If you're going to do Uncharted, DO UNCHARTED.


Obivously when you adapt a story from one medium to another some changes have to be made. But there is no good reason to mess with the basic formula/concept of the game as far as chracters and their relationships, etc...

As has been said, the games already play as pretty damn good modern adventure movies. Just build from that and adapt the stories to feature film, don't go trying to re-invent the whole damn thing!

 

[Brandon Conway]

There has to be a script for the game cut scenes, right? Why not just do rewrites on that? It has all the plotting and beats one needs for the full story. The game is basically a movie with more action scenes than typical that you happen to control. It should be an easy adaptation with only some polish on the character interaction dialog needed.

 

[mattCR]

There has to be a script for the game cut scenes, right? Why not just do rewrites on that? It has all the plotting and beats one needs for the full story. The game is basically a movie with more action scenes than typical that you happen to control. It should be an easy adaptation with only some polish on the character interaction dialog needed.

Agreed. The basic storyline to Uncharted and Uncharted2 were very well told, basic stories with a certain Indiana Jones type feel for them. I say, stick to what you have - don't change it up just to change it up. Kind of a good guy hunting for mythical artifacts with crazy powers, wild things happen, bad guys, etc. Just stick to the storyline. Hell, Uncharted 2 had a better plotline then quite a few films I've seen

 

[Chuck Anstey]

There seems to be an unwritten rule (or maybe trade secret?) that when creating a movie out of a video game that actually has some sort of plot, the movie must be about as different as possible from the source but still be able to use the name. Resident Evil and Doom were about as different as it can get. Only Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter seemed to attempt to actually come up with a story line closely based upon the thread-bare video game plot and character backgrounds.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I don't think they should try to compress the storyline of either game for a movie.If you think about it, what would be the point? They should create a fresh adventure, designed from the get-go for feature film length, that simply remains true to the characters and tone of the games.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

Originally Posted by Aaron Silverman

I don't think they should try to compress the storyline of either game for a movie.If you think about it, what would be the point? They should create a fresh adventure, designed from the get-go for feature film length, that simply remains true to the characters and tone of the games.

Are you saying that it is always pointless or at least less desirable to make a movie very similar to a story and characters that was already done on another medium, like say a book? Should the LOTR movies have been all new fresh adventures of Gandalf, Frodo, and company?

 

[Zack Gibbs]

Originally Posted by Chuck Anstey

Are you saying that it is always pointless or at least less desirable to make a movie very similar to a story and characters that was already done on another medium, like say a book? Should the LOTR movies have been all new fresh adventures of Gandalf, Frodo, and company?

Are you saying that the only way to execute an adaption is with a complete retelling of a pre-existing story? Like say, a comic book? Should The Dark Knight have been limited to the origins of its characters as told in comics, should the joker have run around town with a red bucket on his head and Batman fought crime with a young half-naked boy by his side?

 

[TravisR]

...should the joker have run around town with a red bucket on his head and Batman fought crime with a young half-naked boy by his side?

If I was a studio exec, I'd green light that movie in a second.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

Originally Posted by Zack Gibbs




Are you saying that the only way to execute an adaption is with a complete retelling of a pre-existing story? Like say, a comic book? Should The Dark Knight have been limited to the origins of its characters as told in comics, should the joker have run around town with a red bucket on his head and Batman fought crime with a young half-naked boy by his side?

I didn't say any such thing. You made the claim that it was pointless to retell an existing story from another medium and apparently are also claiming the characters should be changed from their origins. I disagree that it is pointless especially if the story is really good. That doesn't mean it cannot be changed but that does not automatically make it better by that fact alone.

 

[Zack Gibbs]

Originally Posted by Chuck Anstey

I didn't say any such thing. You made the claim that it was pointless to retell an existing story from another medium and apparently are also claiming the characters should be changed from their origins. I disagree that it is pointless especially if the story is really good. That doesn't mean it cannot be changed but that does not automatically make it better by that fact alone.

Actually I nor anyone else made such claims. Even Aron's post, whom you were responding to, said the film should "remain(s) true to the characters and tone of the games."


I was just trying to show you that comparing one adaption to another with so little in common is pointless, as any approach is going to be unique to the elements of its subject. The stories of the Uncharted series are nothing special, they're certainly not LOTR. They're generic adventure stories, and it's the characters and the style of the games that make them special. Those are the elements that are important, in this case.

 

[Chris Farmer]

Changing things up doesn't make them better, but slavish adaptations aren't very good ideas either. I haven't yet played Uncharted 2 (I keep meaning to and keep having another game jump in front of it), but the first game was very much paced for a video game. Major plot reveals, the exploration in between gunfights, and how things were timed was aimed at something that people would spend mot of their time playing with a bit of watching in between. As a result, Drake isn't a protagonist that one could easily get behind in a movie; he slaughters literally hundreds of people over the course of the game. Yeah Indy killed plenty himself, but not THAT many overall. Even the most recent Rambo (which was an absolute blood bath) had 200 some-odd deaths across all sides. The carnage seen in Uncharted, while fine for a video game, would turn most audiences off. In addition the cut scene-gunfight-cut scene-gunfight-exploration-gunfight-cut scene sequencing would grow tiresome quickly, and just wouldn't work that well in a 2 hour movie. There's nothing saying that you couldn't use El Dorado or Shambala as your main plot lines, but there would have to be some significant changes to the overall structure and formatting to make it work.


Note that none of this involves a family meting out justice in the world of antiquities or tackling a crazy case need truth to make it work.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Originally Posted by Chuck Anstey

Are you saying that it is always pointless or at least less desirable to make a movie very similar to a story and characters that was already done on another medium, like say a book? Should the LOTR movies have been all new fresh adventures of Gandalf, Frodo, and company?

I didn't say anything about "always," nor did I say anything about "another medium" in general. I think it'd be pointless to make a movie very similar to either Uncharted game because it would essentially just remove the interactive element from what amounts to an animated movie already. Making a movie from a book is an entirely different animal.


A better analogy would be if someone were to make another Middle Earth movie, would you rather it be a remake of the existing movies or a new adventure that remains true to their spirit?