The feature film adaptation of Uncharted has had a bit of a rocky road through development, but there’s hope yet for the long-in-the-works adventure pic. This past August, Sony Pictures felt bullish enough to announce a June 30, 2017 release date for the film, even as its director Seth Gordon had just exited the project a couple of months prior. Gordon’s exit was due to a reported “new creative direction” for the film, which has previously seen David O. Russell and Neil Burger enter and leave the director’s chair over the course of its development history.

But the exploits of explorer Nathan Drake—a descendant of Sir Francis Drake who seeks out mythical cities in search of lost treasure—appear to be close to coming to fruition, as Steve recently spoke with producer and Atlas Entertainment found and president Charles Roven in concert with the release of the new Warcraft trailer, and Roven revealed that we’ll be “hearing something shortly” with regards to an update on the project.

Perhaps more interestingly, though, Roven broached the subject of fan casting for the role of Nathan Drake. It’s no secret that there have been fan-launched campaigns to put Nathan Fillion in the lead role, but Roven explained that not only are they not even close to casting yet, but the process is more complicated than fans may understand:

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“There’s the studio, they’re a factor. There’s the director, of which we don’t have one at the moment—that individual will be a factor. And of course the producers have a say. In this particular case [Avi and Ari Arad] are producing together with Atlas and that’s a partnership, so we all have a vote. But we’re really not ready to cast that vote yet until we’re ready to actually cast, and that’s not happened yet.”

Indeed, when it comes to potential franchises, casting the lead isn’t simply the decision of the director. A number of folks that are intimately involved in the film have a say in who will be the face of the expensive and potentially lucrative property, so the process involves more than just hearing who the fans want to play the character.

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Image via Sony

Regardless, we’ll hopefully be hearing something shortly on the Uncharted movie, likely the project’s new director. For now, it’s best to put those fan casting dreams aside for a bit.

If you missed our previous coverage from Steve’s interview with Roven, peruse the links below.

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Image via Sony