The ''Uncharted Live Action Fan Film'' is a 2018

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

based on the ''Uncharted'' video game series by

Naughty Dog Naughty Dog, LLC (formerly JAM Software, Inc.) is an American first-party video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin in 1984, the studio was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2001. Gav ...

. Directed by

Allan Ungar Allan Ungar is a Canadian film director, producer, and screenwriter known for directing the true crime drama ''Bandit'', the ''Uncharted Live Action Fan Film'', and the Netflix action thriller '' Gridlocked''. Career When Ungar was 23 years o ...

and co-written by Ungar and Jesse Wheeler, it was released on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

on July 16, 2018, and stars

Nathan Fillion Nathan Fillion (; born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian-American actor. He played the leading roles of Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds on '' Firefly'' and its film continuation '' Serenity'', and Richard Castle on '' Castle''. , he was starring as J ...

Stephen Lang Stephen Lang (born July 11, 1952) is an American actor. He is known for roles in films including '' Manhunter'' (1986), '' Gettysburg'', '' Tombstone'' (both 1993), '' Gods and Generals'' (2003), '' Public Enemies'' (2009), ''Conan the Barbaria ...

Geno Segers Lonnie G. "Geno" Segers Jr. is an American actor known for his roles as Chayton Littlestone in the Cinemax original series ''Banshee'', Dwayne in NBC's Perfect Harmony, Mason Makoola in the Disney XD television series ''Pair of Kings'', Kincaid ...

Mircea Monroe Mircea Monroe (born March 11, 1982) is an American model and actress, known for her roles on the TV series ''Episodes'' as Morning Randolph (2011–2017), ''Hart of Dixie'' as Tansy Truitt (2011–2015), ''Impastor'' as Alexa Cummings (2015–201 ...

, and

Ernie Reyes Jr. Ernie Reyes Jr. (born January 15, 1972) is an American actor and martial artist, known for his acting work in films such as ''The Last Dragon'', ''Red Sonja'' (1985), as Donatello's stuntman in ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'', '' Teenage Mutan ...

Synopsis

Treasure hunter Nathan Drake (Fillion) finds himself captured while searching for the lost treasure of the ''

Flor de la Mar ''Flor do Mar'' or ''Flor de la Mar'' (Flower of the Sea), spelled ''Frol de la Mar'' in all Portuguese chronicles of the 16th century, was a Portuguese ''nau'' (carrack) of 400 tons, which over nine years participated in decisive events in the ...

''.

Cast

as Nathan Drake *

as Victor Sullivan *

as Diego *

Elena Fisher Elena Fisher is a fictional character in the ''Uncharted'' series, developed by Naughty Dog. Elena appears in four video games in the main series: '' Uncharted: Drake's Fortune'', '' Uncharted 2: Among Thieves'', '' Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception ...

as El Tigre

Production

Ungar and Fillion were introduced to one another by a mutual friend in January 2018 after Ungar expressed interest in speaking to Fillion about the project.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

on the film began May 7 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and lasted for five days. The opening scenes were shot in

Palmdale Palmdale is a city in northern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. The city lies in the Antelope Valley region of Southern California. The San Gabriel Mountains separate Palmdale from the Los Angeles Basin to the south. On Aug ...

and the exteriors of the mansion were shot in

Santa Clarita Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17th ...

. The interiors were shot in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

while the final scene was shot in Malibu,

. Fillion trained for the role and also performed most of his own stunts. According to Fillion and Ungar, most of the crew did not know what they were working on until Fillion showed up in wardrobe because the production was set up under the fake title ''Breaking and Entering'', which is a reference to a chapter in '' Uncharted 2: Among Thieves''.

Release

Fillion released the film through

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

and

, after dropping some teases on his social media handles. It reached over 2 million views in its first two days. Since its release, fans have taken to social media campaigning for

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

YouTube Premium YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals programming ...

to turn it into a digital series.

Reception

Critical reception for ''Uncharted'' has been positive, with journalists, fans, and bloggers praising Fillion's performance as well as Ungar's direction.

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media' ...

called it "film's only good video game adaptation" while

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

labelled it as "just about everything you’d want from an ''Uncharted'' movie: witty quips, fun twists, esoteric history references, and even a pivot to Video Game Mode for a gun fight". Phil Hornshaw of

The Wrap ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

said "Ungar’s fan film pretty perfectly captures the feel of the game series, which has always carried the feel of a big-budget summer blockbuster movie. Fillion is a good fit for the role of the wise-cracking and amiable Drake; Stephen Lang (''

Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...

'', ''

Don't Breathe ''Don't Breathe'' is a 2016 American horror-thriller film produced and directed by Fede Álvarez, co-produced by Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert, and co-written by Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues. The film stars Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatt ...

'') takes on the role of Sully in the fan film, and Mircea Monroe (''

Episodes Episodes may refer to: * Episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption. The noun ''episode'' is derived from the Gree ...

'') plays Elena. The script is dead-on "Uncharted", cutting from Nate firing off a bunch of jokes to a quick history lesson about 16th century conqueror Afonso de Albuquerque and explorer Ferdinand Magellan".

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

was one of the many outlets that advocated for the short to turn into something more.

vice president

Neil Druckmann Neil Druckmann ( he, ניל דרוקמן; born December 5, 1978) is an Israeli-American writer, creative director, designer, and programmer who has been co-president (alongside Evan Wells) of the video game developer Naughty Dog since 2020. He ...

and franchise creator

Amy Hennig Amy Hennig (born August 19, 1964) is an American video game director and script writer, formerly for the video game company Naughty Dog. She began her work in the industry on the Nintendo Entertainment System, with her design debut on the Super ...

both shared their support on social media along with many other gaming creators.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Fan films 2018 films Uncharted Live-action films based on video games American action adventure films American short films Films based on Sony Interactive Entertainment video games Films shot in Los Angeles County, California 2010s English-language films Films directed by Allan Ungar 2010s American films 2018 short films Films released on YouTube