Step aside Sony, we want this.
The official Uncharted movie, being released by Sony and allegedly staring Tom Holland (we’ll believe it when we see it), has been stuck in development hell for the past decade.
That didn’t stop Nathan Fillion — yes, THE Nathan Fillion — from teaming up with director Allan Ungar to make an Uncharted short film that’s purely meant for the fans.
It’s even better than anyone could have ever expected.
While only 15 minutes long and clearly working with a constrained budget, Fillion and Ungar are able to bring this franchise and character to life — making what should now be considered the best video-game adaptation to date (I know, it’s not a feature film, but I’m saying it counts).
Particularly, it’s Fillion’s performance that makes this Uncharted film so much fun to watch as he brings a charisma that fits perfectly with the character.
Granted, I, myself, don’t know all that much about the character or Uncharted as video-games aren’t really my thing, but I know enough that, if done properly, this could become the next Indiana Jones (which is even more appropriate since who knows if Indiana Jones 5 will ever happen).
What’s even more remarkable about this whole thing is that no one really knew Fillion was working on it — we all just kind of woke up on Monday morning to find it had been released.
“This popped into my head years ago,” Ungar said via the Hollywood Reporter. “I’m an avid gamer. I, like everybody else, felt there was one guy who could do this. I thought, why has nobody tried to do this yet with Nathan?”
Now that it has been done, and quite brilliantly I might add, there is one question on everyone’s minds — what does this mean for the Sony movie?
Ideally, they’d see the overwhelming response this fan-film has gotten, hire Ungar and Fillion onto the project and then start over with a page one re-write. That seems like a bit of a stretch, I know, but Deadpool did something pretty similar back when it was trying to get made and we all know how that turned out. It’s not impossible is all I’m saying.
If Sony doesn’t bite and wants to continue moving forward with Tom Holland in the lead role, maybe it’s possible a different franchise picks up the rights and makes their own project with Fillion as Nathan Drake? I mean, can you imagine an Uncharted YouTube Red series that’s in the same vein as Cobra Kai?
There’s a lot to be decided yet, but it’s an exciting time as we might, finally, be on the dawn of the first good feature film video-game adaptation.
Watch the fan film here and then let us know, in the comments below, what you think of Fillion in this role and what you think the next step for Sony should be.