Uncharted Script Taken Over By Neil Burger, Being Completely Rewritten

Fans of the popular PS3 game series Uncharted weren’t too happy when screenwriter David O. Russell began adding extra layers to the game, turning their favorite character into a wise-cracking treasure hunter and globetrotting art merchant, which means they should be happy to learn that the script has been taken away form Russell and put in the very capable hands of Neil BUrger (The Illusionist, Limitless) and that he has promised to completely rewrite the script with inspirations taken directly from the games characters.

According CraveOnline Burger said:

“I haven’t seen [Russell’s] screenplay on it. Mainly we’re beginning from scratch and going back to the videogame. Because there’s a lot of cool stuff, actually, from the videogame, if you know it…”

The studio removed Russell when he started turning the script into an epic focus on a global scale, while Sony Pictures, producers of the game-to-movie flick wanted more of an “Indiana Jones” feel, which makes sense since the game is often viewed in that respect.

Burger continued with CraveOnline:

“I think Indiana Jones is, you know, fantastic. The grandfather of all those movies. But I think Indiana Jones is nostalgic. It takes place in the 1930s, and the later ones are a little bit later, and it kind of plays on that nostalgia. Whereas Uncharted is very much up to the minute, of the moment. It’s very ‘now’ and contemporary and it has this sort of rough and very intense feel that a movie like The Bourne Identity has. It’s really up to date in its own way. The Bourne Identity isn’t your father’s Cold War movie and this is a very different kind of treasure hunt movie. It’s very real and it has kind of an insane, wild feeling that comes out of the character; Nate being this con man and a bit of a hustler, living by his wits, ballsy and capable of anything.”

With Mark Wahlberg exiting the film before Burger even had time to save it, casting could play a crucial role in the direction the movie takes, it will just be interesting to see which actor will step in front of the lens for a movie that was already once doomed from the start.