Ah, the pre-production stage of a movie. There’s the writing/screenwriting phase, the search for a director, the search for financing and a few other things that need to happen before a film actually gets greenlit for production. All of which could go wrong and cause a movie to be canceled. Uncertainty about the 23rd James Bond and Mission: Impossible – 4 not withstanding, news is scarce in this early stage. Let’s take a look at what’s happened so far:

2009

• June 26 – Producer Avi Arad, Naughty Dog and Sony announce plans to bring UNCHARTED to the silver screen
• June 27 – Naughty Dog Co-President Evan Wells announces movie plans on the PlayStation Blog and asks for casting ideas
• October 19 – Naughty Dog’s Creative Director Amy Hennig talks to Vulture about how making video games is harder than a movie, has confidence in the film producers
• October 29 – Nolan North weighs in on the casting of Nathan Drake, wants to see Hugh Jackman selected
• November 13 – We, along with every other site, posted our casting picks – including Nathan Fillion
• November 22 – Latino Review breaks news that Conan-reboot duo Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer have replaced Kyle Ward as the film’s screenwriters.

2010 – Present Day

• Throughout the first few months, news was pretty scarce. Speculation and discussion among the community was about all you could find before May.
• May 3 – LA Times’ 24 Frames reports the script has been completed and that director David O. Russell is currently favored to helm the film.
• August 3 – LA Times’ 24 Frames reports that David O. Russell will not direct the film. The studio is anticipated to seek one or two lead actors before resuming the search for a director.
• October 8 – Sony confirms via Twitter that David O. Russell will in fact write and direct the film. Talk about backtracking.
• October 9 – Genre actor and fanboy/fangirl magnet Nathan Fillion announces interest in playing Nathan Drake, asking his Twitter followers to campaign on his behalf. Due to reader and fan requests, we published a resource page to assist in that campaign.
• October 11 – Genre actor Joe Flanigan also throws his hat into the ring for the role of Nathan Drake.
• November 24 – Mark Wahlberg hints in MTV interview that he has been selected for the role of Nathan Drake in the upcoming film. (Note: Many news sources including MTV are using the word “confirmed,” we will not until we hear it’s official.) Our industry sources say it’s still too early and casting has not taken place… in fact, the movie’s screenplay hasn’t been submitted yet and a budget doesn’t even exist.

Our Thoughts

The lack of steady production news isn’t concerning, as the producers seem to be taking the side of caution. That said, a little more news would certainly keep the buzz going for what is sure to be an incredible movie if done right!

So that’s about it. Are we missing anything? Let us know in the comments!