Caffeinated Clint
Notice there wasn’t as severe a water shortage a couple of years ago as there is now?
And why is that? I say it’s because when Mark Wahlberg was cast as video-game character Nathan Drake in a David O’Russell directed feature adaptation of the the “Uncharted” game, ‘Browncoats’ and fans of actor Nathan Fillion cried bucket-loads – so much it filled the water tanks of the thirstiest for months. And then, they simply got over it.
Fillion, a terrifically versatile thesp whose legion of fans followed him from his two major series’ “Firefly” and “Castle”, looks so much like video-game character Drake that even those without a subscription to ‘Fillion Weekly’ championed for the actor to play the part. But it had much more to do with simply looks, Fillion’s a terrifically charming, suave and very likeable leading man – and in “Firefly”, in which he played the almost Indiana Jones-Han Solo hybrid of Malcolm Reynolds, he proved he can also handle himself as an action-adventure man. If “Serenity”, the feature-film spin-off of TV’s “Firefly”, had been the “Star Wars”-sized hit it should’ve been, then Fillion would’ve gotten the job no worries. Sadly, “The Fighter”, “Boogie Nights” and “The Other Guys” beats “Serenity” and “Dracula 2000” each and every time, thus Wahlberg was always going to get the gig over the underdog. Doesn’t matter who the better actor, or the more appropriate one was for the part, it all comes down to numbers.
Then…last year, Wahlberg and O.Russell both departed “Uncharted”.
Last we heard Prodco Atlas Entertainment replaced O.Russell with “Illusionist” helmer Neil Burger.
So, where are we at now? Well, there’s a rumour floating around today, and I believe it started at GamingSquid, that Fillion may have gotten the job.
The website, without naming a source or supplying anything in the way of back-up intel, says Gerard Butler was set to replace Wahlberg, but that’s changed and Fillion has ended up with the gig.
2 months back, we posted the information that the Gerrard Butler is the hero of the upcoming Uncharted Movie, but now we got some more information that Gerrard Butler is not the hero of the Movie it is Nathan Fillion. Nathan Fillion has the look of Nathan Drake and moreover, his voice also matches with the Nathan Drake. So, it’s a good news for the Uncharted movie fans that Nathan Fillion is selected as the hero of the Uncharted Movie.
Though a familiar face on TV, Fillion’s film credits largely consist of the odd supporting role, though he did have leading roles in the likes of “Serenity”, “White Noise The Light”, “Slither” and “Super”; goes without saying though, the budgets of those films are no match the pricey undertaking that “Uncharted” will be.
I remember when David O.Russell was working on the film he mentioned that Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro had been discussed as Wahlberg’s co-stars in the movie. So here’s what I’m thinking, if “Uncharted” is still a film that De Niro and/or Pesci are interested in, even without O.Russell onboard, it could actually work to cast Fillion in the lead role. Surrounding a reasonably new film actor with a couple of vets is not unlike what the Salkinds did with “Superman” back in 1980, and that worked a treat. Obviously a film based on a computer game is no exactly carrying the mark of a mega-known comic hero like ‘Superman’, but I think you get what I’m saying – huge stars in supporting roles, helping the box-office, appropriate but lesser-known actor in the main role.
I still remember, in the early days of Moviehole, when a struggling but talented young man named Christian Bale use to drop us a line every few months. And I remember the conversation we once had about Batman, shortly after he played Patrick Bateman in 2000’s “American Psycho”. A couple of people had mentioned he’d make for a good Batman, based on his look mainly, but Bale laughed it off – feeling Warner Bros would never give him a shot, considering the films he had starred in were all flops and his name meant nothing box-office wise. But champion Bale we did for the part, again and again, and eventually… he got an audition. The rest is history.
So you Fillion fans, keep at it. Hollywood does listen from time to time.
Still, I’m getting ahead of myself and for all we know, GameSquid have got it wrong (and I’m not convinced there is any truth to this; still, it gets Fillion’s name out there again – all good!). Guess we’ll find out soon!
In your mind, who is the perfect Nathan Drake?
