Fun fact: As of today, there have now been more directors who have dropped out of Sony’s “Fuck it, we have the rights, so why not” film adaptation of the bestselling Uncharted video game franchise than there have been actual Uncharted games. That’s because—per IGN—10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg just bailed on the Tom Holland-starring picture, following in the dusty footprints of David O. Russell, Neil Burger, Seth Gordon, and Shawn Levy before him. “Don’t go in there,” we can imagine these scarred souls warning newcomers driving toward the franchise. “That old Uncharted place is cursed.”
Trachtenberg didn’t make any public statements about why he was leaving the film, which is being produced by Sony’s brand new PlayStation Productions production studio. As such, we still don’t know why the hell directors keep bailing on this thing, which seems like a pretty straight shot, especially since the games themselves are unabashed rip-offs of some of the most popular film franchises of all time. (Indiana Jones, mostly, with just a hint of National Treasure and Tomb Raider thrown in there for fun.) The current formulation is for the first movie to be a prequel focusing on protagonist Nathan Drake’s early days, a premise that was presumably whipped up six seconds after the much-younger-than-Nate Holland indicated he might be willing to sign on to the project. (He’s still attached, by the way.)
Sony says it’s expecting to have a new director on the film by the end of summer—at least until the inevitable happens once again, and, like, a piano or an anvil falls out of nowhere and onto the poor schmuck’s head.