Joe Carnahan Says the UNCHARTED Script Is Rated R and Has "Four of the Biggest, F***in’ Craziest Action Sequences"
It looks like the big screen adaptation of the hit video game Uncharted could end up being an awesome hardcore action film that no one was expecting! Joe Carnahan (Smokin' Aces, The Grey) wrote the script for the film, and he didn't hold back.
In an interview with Comingsoon, the filmmaker reveals that the script for the film is definitely rated R, he explains how he broke the Indiana Jones mold, and also says that there are "four of the biggest, f***in’ craziest action sequences" in the movies. I think fans of the game are going to be very happy with what he has to say about his script:
"When I wrote Uncharted, I didn’t spare the rod. I wrote it the way the video game is. They swear in the game, they’re kinda foul-mouthed and I kept all that stuff intact and I definitely didn’t write it as a PG-13 movie, I wrote it the way that movie should be written."
He also says that he never understood the whole idea behind making a movie PG-13 so that it makes more money. He says that a "cop out" and that "it's been exposed as such." He goes on to explain how he broke out of the Indiana Jones mold in developing the story and script and how the character Drake is different:
"Listen, I’m a huge Indiana Jones fan, which was one of my interests in it and you have to remember you’ve got Sully as well, so it’s more of a buddy situation than just Drake solo. You have this kind of Hope & Crosby, 'Road to Morocco' kind of thing, so it’s not a straight Indy lift. Drake is not a guy who likes museums. He thinks they’re all crooked. Curators are 'thieves,' the guys in the Louvre and The Met are thieves and despicable. He’s a treasure hunter, not an archaeologist. He doesn’t have Indiana Jones’ idea of pure faith in archaeology. That’s not the way he thinks. It differentiates, and in the script there are deliberate differentiations. He has a line where he says, 'They’re gonna be looking at real booby traps, not rolling boulder bullsh*t.' (laughs) ['Raiders of the Lost Ark'] is still arguably my favorite movie of all-time, but it was necessary to create those distinctions. I think Amy Hennig did it when she wrote the game. She made Drake very much an anti-Indiana Jones, you know? Don’t forget, for that first game after that pirate attack, Drake and Sully leave Elena behind, they dump her. Indiana Jones would never do something like that. That’s a rogue act, so she was declaring very early on who that guy was. He was not Jones, he was not to be confused with that guy."
Carnahan seems to have a solid handle and understanding of the Uncharted franchise and the characters that make up the story. He's also got the action and adventure aspect of it down as well. Apparently, he's put some insane action sequences in his script! After saying that the studio let him do his thing, he says:
"I probably wrote four of the biggest, f***in’ craziest action sequences I think I’ve ever written in that movie. I used the 'Uncharted' games as a template but not using any one specifically, because those sequences have already been done beautifully. There’s no point in just transposing them to film, you’ve gotta come up with new sh*t, so that’s what I did. It was a great challenge but it was a lot of fun."
After reading what Carnahan had to say about his Uncharted script, I certainly hope that the studio takes it and runs with it because it sounds like the film will be an absolute blast! I would love to see a hardcore, r-rated, action-packed Uncharted movie! Hell, what fan of the game wouldn't!?
With films like Daredevil and Logan paving the way for R-rated comic book movies, maybe that will inspire Sony Pictures to take advantage of the script that Carnahan wrote and use if for Uncharted.