Sony’s Uncharted movie has lost another director as Travis Knight departs

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 09: Travis Knight attends Premiere Of Paramount Pictures' "Bumblebee" at TCL Chinese Theatre on December 09, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images)
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 09: Travis Knight attends Premiere Of Paramount Pictures' "Bumblebee" at TCL Chinese Theatre on December 09, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images) /
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Sony’s Uncharted film adaptation of the Naughty Dog game series has suffered another setback as director Travis Knight has departed the project.

The carousel of directors attached helm Sony’s Uncharted movie adaptation continues to turn. Travis Knight is the latest to depart from the project, which has faced numerous setbacks dating all the way back to 2010.

Knight, who made his live-action directorial debut with 2018’s Transformers spinoff, Bumblebee, signed on to helm the Uncharted movie in September 2019. However, according to Deadline, he has stepped away from the project due to a scheduling conflict with star Tom Holland, whose work on the next Spider-Man “is crunching Uncharted’s timeline.”

Uncharted was originally scheduled to hit theaters on December 18, 2020. While the company still plans to move forward with the adaptation, the search for a new director likely means it’s going to have to be delayed.

The pre-production issues with directors for Uncharted have been well-documented since 2010. David O. Russell was initially attached, but dropped out over “creative differences.” He was followed by Neil Burger, who dropped out shortly afterward to work on another film. Seth Gordon then took over but left due to “creative differences” as well.

In 2016, Shawn Levy announced he was directing. Two years later, it was announced that he had stepped down.

Dan Trachtenberg reportedly signed on to direct in January of this year. In August, he, too, had exited the film.

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Travis Knight was the latest to have signed on to direct with production scheduled to start in early 2020. That’s obviously not going to happen now.

As the visionary behind the film, finding the right director is paramount to a movie’s success. Movies based on video game franchises already face an uphill battle. The fact that Sony can’t find a director to stick is not a good sign. Even with a cast that includes Tom Holland as a young Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as Victor Sullivan, it’s no guarantee to be a hit if the direction is poor.

Sony’s attempt at a film adaptation of Naughty Dog’s popular blockbuster franchise, Uncharted, probably isn’t something many people are clamoring to see, but the studio continues to press on with it. Some things are better left untouched and I have a feeling Uncharted is one of those.