David O. Russell Writing/Directing Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Sony has officially announced with a press release that David O. Russell, who was previously attached to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, is set to write and direct an adaptation of the video game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for Columbia Pictures. Avi Arad, Charles Roven, Ari Arad and Alex Gartner are producing the live-action action-adventure film that follows the adventures of treasure hunter Nathan Drake. We've covered a few stories about this project before, namely that they were hiring writers to take a crack at adapting it, but it looks like Russell dropped everything to take this on full-time.

Columbia's President Matt Tolmach said: "David is a tremendous choice to take on this film. He's equally adept at combining all the classic elements involved in this property: great character development, strong comedy, and amazing action sequences. He has a brilliant vision for this material and we know he will bring his original, unique voice to this adaptation." I really hope that's not all BS talk, as I want this to be good.

The action-filled story in the original Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (which now has a few sequels) follows a descendant of explorer Sir Francis Drake, a treasure hunter named Nate Drake who believes he's learned the whereabouts of El Dorado, the fabled South American golden city, from a cursed golden statue. Oddly, Columbia's press release barely mentions a plot, so I think that Russell may blaze his own trail and come up with his own Indiana Jones-like historic adventure story for the film. Russell has been jumping all over the map since leaving that Nailed project behind, I just hope he can handle big action-adventure.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2010/10/08/david-o-russell-writingdirecting-uncharted-drakes-fortune/