From young James Bond to Nathan Drake real quick
Holland burst into the Hollywood scene in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. Since then, he’s starred in several blockbusters and billion-dollar films, including the pandemic era’s current record holder, Spider-Man: No Way Home. Now, he’s set to try and subvert expectations with the live-action adaptation of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted franchise, as he stars as a neophyte Nathan Drake who’s still a little wet behind the ears. While you’d think that Holland’s time as Peter Parker was what landed him another role of a lifetime as Nathan Drake, it appears that Holland’s idea for a James Bond origin story was what effectively led to the film’s creation. As told by Holland to Total Film and reported by GamesRadar+, the young Hollywood actor had a meeting around the time of Spider-Man: Far From Home. He explained that he went to Sony to “pitch this idea of a young Bond film” that he had come up with. He added that it was the “origin story of James Bond.” Although he admitted that his idea “didn’t make sense”, it was enough to spark the idea for a “Nathan Drake story as an origin story.” Now, here we are, and Uncharted is finally set to premiere on February 18. Unlike most live-action adaptations of video games, Uncharted doesn’t adapt the source material or take anything from it. Instead, the Ruben Fleischer film takes place before the events of the video game franchise. You could say that it’s a prequel to 2007’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune for the PlayStation 3. The film even stars the actor who was originally tapped to play Nathan Drake in Mark Wahlberg, who will play the role of Viktor “Sully” Sullivan, Drake’s mentor. Of course, while Uncharted is set before the games, this doesn’t mean that it can’t take inspiration from it - the latest Uncharted clip is proof that it aims to bring some of the game’s most iconic action sequences to life. Aside from Uncharted’s origin story, the interview also revealed a lot of useful information about the complicated process of getting the movie made after it officially entered development back in 2008. Holland talked in detail about how involved he was in finding the right director. Holland says that they ultimately went with Fleischer, the director of several of Sony’s previous hits such as 2018’s Venom and 2019’s Zombieland: Double Tap. In other Tom Holland news, Jacob Batalon, who plays the role of Peter Parker’s best friend, revealed that Holland wants to play James Bond. Of course, we now know that his previous ideas for a James Bond film didn’t work. But, who knows? In a few years and once he’s a little bit older, the Bond estate might ring him up to see if he’s still interested.
