Still riding high on the buzz from The Fighter, Mark Wahlberg recently confirmed that he will not be taking the lead role in the planned reboot of The Crow; meaning that that remake has now only only been rewritten, but lost its director, and failed to seal a deal with the star it was chasing; partly due to the fact that Stephen Norrington (Blade); the director Wahlberg “is a fan of”; has left the project, and partly so that he can commit to other projects.
Mark recently let the world know that he “never committed” to making The Crow, but has now confirmed that he will play the starring role of Nathan Drake in the upcoming Uncharted movie; which is to be based on the massively popular Playstation 3 franchise of the same name.
So far there have been two game releases in the franchise; both of which feature lost cities, and focus of the game’s hero (Drake) searching for some sort of hidden treasure, in an Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider/National Treasure type of adventure; which is always full of wise-cracks, plenty of fun, and a massive body count.
David O Russell is writing, and planning to direct, the adaptation; which will once again see him working with Wahlberg (as the pair previously collaborated on Three Kings, and the upcoming, Oscar-hopeful, The Fighter); and filling the cast with some fairly big names; as Mark confirmed that he is writing roles for Nathan’s father and uncle (neither of which featured in the games), which he hopes will be filled by Robert De Niro (Little Fockers), and Joe Pesci (Goodfellas), respectively.
Uncharted is bound to gain a huge amount of attention, and be at least a minor success; thanks to the popularity of the video games; and it sounds like the movie will be one to look out for; as Walhberg believes that David’s idea for the movie is “insane”, “off the charts”, and “isn’t going to be a watered-down version.”
Mark also let another key piece of information slip, by announcing that they hope to begin shooting next summer, which suggests that expecting to see Uncharted in cinemas by 2012, may not be too much of a stretch.
