For Sony Pictures, perhaps the seventh time is the charm. Following the departure of director Travis Knight (
Bumblebee) from the studio's oft-delayed
Uncharted movie,
Venom director Ruben Fleischer is now reportedly being eyed to helm the live-action adaptation.
Deadline reports that Fleischer is atop Sony's list to direct the movie. While no deal is currently in place,
Variety is reporting that insiders
"say the job is his if he wants it."
Fleischer is coming off directing two fairly big blockbusters in
Zombieland: Double Tap (2019) and
Venom (2018). The latter bombed with critics — just
a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes — but fans seemed to eat it up to the tune of $856 million at the worldwide box office. Despite it being a box office success, Sony
opted to go with a different director in Andy Serkis for the sequel.
Based on the hit action-adventure franchise for PlayStation,
Uncharted will star Tom Holland as a young Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as Sully, his mentor and father figure. The video game franchise follows Nathan Drake on treasure hunts around the world. The current draft of the screenplay is written by Rafe Judkins, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway.
The
Uncharted movie was slated to hit theaters in December of this year, but the switch in directors will likely impact that release date.