Director Seth Gordon Leaves 'Uncharted'; Release Date, Cast, Plot & More Here!

Director Seth Gordon has left “Uncharted.”

Umberto Gonzalez of Heroic Hollywood revealed that the movie experienced development problems after Tom Rothman, chairman of the Sony Motion Picture Group, came in and required the team to cut their budget from nine to eight figures. Insiders said that the script is back in development for adjustments and Gordon is officially out. The Wrap, however, reported that Rothman decided to have the film take on a new creative route instead of slashing the budget.

Screen Rant reported that Mark Boal was the last screenwriter known to be working on the script of “Uncharted”. There are no confirmations whether Boal’s screenplay draft is being revised to meet the budget cut or if the entire project needs to start from scratch. Certainly, the film will probably not launchon June 12, 2016 as originally planned. Sony is set to feature the animated movie “Angry Birds” in May 2016 and the reboot of “Ghostbusters” in July 2015, so a substitute is expected for “Uncharted” in between those months.

The Wrap stated that Alex Gartner and Charles Roven will be producing the game-to-movie adaptation for Atlas together with the Arads. Sony is currently looking for a big star for “Uncharted”, after Chris Pratt reportedly passed on the role. At various points during development, Thomas Dean Donnelly, David Guggenheim, Joshua Oppenheimer and Cormac and Marianne Wibberley have also worked on the script, based on a report by Slash Film. The game series focused on modern treasure hunter Nathan “Nate” Drake, so the movie is expected to be quite similar to “Indiana Jones”. After Rothman entered, there were apprehensions that the movie might turn out more like “Resident Evil” because of the budget compromise.

In the meantime, Gordon should not be very concerned about his departure from the project, since he still has a lot of developmental tasks such as “Ground Control to Major Tom” and “One Night on the Hudson”. Gordon is represented by WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, based on the same report by The Wrap.

Screen Rant also mentioned that adventure movie franchises have been around for several years, such as “National Treasure”, “Indiana Jones” and “The Mummy”. Although these are not as popular as they used to be, video game movies are quickly becoming the norm, so “Uncharted” might benefit much if films like “Warcraft”, “Hitman: Agent 47” and “Assassin’s Creed” do well at the box office.

More details about the upcoming game is expected in the following weeks, as well as a rescheduled launch date.