Bad day for folks who are looking forward to adaptations of beloved franchises. Sony has delayed the upcoming Uncharted film starring Tom Holland yet again and has completely removed Masters of the Universe from their schedule. The two films were set to launch what Sony hoped would be new franchises that could provide multiple sequels.
The Uncharted delay might not come as a surprise given its troubles with directors and is simply being pushed three months from December 2020 to March 5, 2021. That’s not that bad considering the film just lost its director Travis Knight due to scheduling conflicts, and no new director has been found, though Sony is said to be circling Ruben Fleischer of Zombieland and Venom fame.
The movie has been in development hell for more than a decade now but seems to be finally coalescing, with Holland playing a younger Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg tackling the role of Sully. If Fleischer does land the job, it may signal yet another change for the film, as the tone of his movies is quite different from Knight’s work like Bumblebee and Kubo and the Two Strings. Scheduling could still derail this entire thing as Holland is a very busy man, and if Sony can’t get everything together, they may lose their window.
Masters of the Universe, an adaptation of the ’80s cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, has been gestating for a while too. The film is part of Hasbro’s attempt to turn its classic toy lines into massive movie franchises as it has with Transformers and G.I. Joe. The project reportedly has no director or script, so handing off its original March 2021 release date to Uncharted makes sense. Collider reports that rumors are going around the entire thing may movie to streaming after the announcement of Netflix’s announcement of a limited series.
