Fillion: Wahlberg has "mad skills"

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 12 January, 2011

Wannabe Drake praises big screen Drake.

Firefly's Nathan Fillion is philosophical about losing out to Mark Wahlberg in the race to play Nathan Drake in the Uncharted movie – he's just praised the Three Kings actor on Twitter.

"Just watched The Other Guys, and honestly excited to see Wahlberg in Drake's Fortune," Fillion tweeted overnight. "He's got mad skills."

Last year, before Wahlberg was cast as Drake in the Hollywood adaptation of Naughty Dog's Uncharted franchise, fan favourite Fillion called on his Twitter followers to big up his case for the role.

"If ever there was a Twitter campaign, let this be it," he said. "Rise, ye Browncoats. Rise, ye Castillions. RISE!"

Unfortunately, it didn't work, and in November Wahlberg was officially cast as Nathan Drake.

Uncharted fans have expressed concern about the movie ever since - they're worried the film will bear little resemblance to its source material.

Director David O Russell has said the script, which is currently about 50 per cent complete, expands on Naughty Dog's narrative, recasting Drake as a member of a family of globetrotting antique dealers.

Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci are expected to play Drake's father and uncle respectively.

Columbia Pictures hasn't ventured a release date for the movie tie-in yet, but in the meantime you can check out Russell's work in boxing drama The Fighter, starring Wahlberg and Christian Bale.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (45) Latest comment 7 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Dolly #1 1 year ago

    *insert funky bunch comment here*

  • PixelPirate #2 1 year ago

    This is really going to suck big time, it might as well be an entirely different film.

    WHEN WILL THEY LEARN?

  • Buztafen #3 1 year ago

    Havent seen The Fighter yet but ive heard good things about the direction and Marks acting in it so...you never know.

    /crosses fingers

  • altitude2k #4 1 year ago

    Why does this film need to be called "Uncharted" again?

    Oh yes, that's right - guaranteed sales. How clever.

  • berryl227 #5 1 year ago

    "Director David O Russell has said the script, which is currently about 50 per cent complete, expands on Naughty Dog's narrative, recasting Drake as a member of a family of globetrotting antique dealers."

    Oh dear, globe trotting antique dealers.... Seriously.

    Think I'd rather watch the trailer for uncharted 3 on repeat for 90 mins then watch what will surely be total celluloid toilet

  • Fab4 #6 1 year ago

    "mad skills"...yes, unfortunately acting isn't one of them.

  • mikeawmids #7 1 year ago

    If I were Fillion, I'd be relieved not to be involved with what will inevitably turn out to be a really awful movie.

  • photoboy #8 1 year ago

    Fillion would have been a million times more suitable for this role than Wahlberg.

  • beastmaster #9 1 year ago

    With De Niro & Pesci on board, that will probably attract a lot of actors/actresses to the films other roles who perhaps may have normally stayed away.

    With a top notch support cast, a great second unit for the action scenes, MINIMAL (cannot stress that enough) CGI and a hot, sexy babe in tow, this might just work.

  • Antaios #10 1 year ago

    "the Three Kings actor"

    I'm sure Wahlberg has done other films since then.

    This movie will be awful, and that in itself is a mad skill of O Russel himself. Naughty Dog basically hands them a great story with great characters and some brilliant action scenes and the only damn thing the movie company has to do is copy that to the silver screen and fill in the platforming bits with extra story/dialogue. Easiest movie cash-in I can think of, really.

  • 00.00.01 #11 1 year ago

    "...a family of globetrotting antique dealers."
    .
    Hmmm...Let me guess, Lara Croft turns out to be his long lost twin sis and in 'Unchartered-The Movie:2/King Solomons' Mines' they're looking for precious artefacts together...

  • phycus #12 1 year ago

    Wahlberg's acting skills are on par with a lump of wood. Not to mention he's only what 2 feet tall, how the hell could he do the platforming scenes ?

  • patch #13 1 year ago

    *bear

  • Cronan #14 1 year ago

    "bare" means to be naked or uncovered, the expression should be "bear little resemblance".

  • madgerald Verified Studio Head of PR & Marketing, Colossal Games LTD #15 1 year ago

    "...a family of globetrotting antique dealers."

    Where's Ian McShane when you need him?

  • spongebob #16 1 year ago

    Wahlberg is not a bad actor, quite the contrary. Just watch Boogie Nights or The Departed. Anyway, I have a feeling that we will see some changes in the credits before they roll out on the screens. I have a feeling that Russell might give the director's chair to someone else.

  • Evolution #17 1 year ago

    Yes Wahlberg particularly showed how mad his skills are in that travesty Max Payne...

    @madgerald

    He's too busy being the new villain in the next Pirates movie :)

  • Monkey_Puncher #18 1 year ago

    On what planet though does Nathan Fillion have the pulling power of someone like Wahlberg? Outside of the Serenity and Firefly crowds, he really isn't a well known actor in any way shape or form.

  • DavoTheDiv #19 1 year ago

    I really like Wahlberg, but don't think he's a perfect fit for the role. Fillion would be perfect, in fact Drake almost seems like he was modelled on Fillion. Such a wasted opportunity.

  • strange_powers #20 1 year ago

    Monkey Puncher - he's the lead in Castle, a primetime US cop show which has been running for a couple of years and is very successful. In fame terms, he's doing alright. I would have liked to have seen him as Drake.

    But I'm not going to whinge too much about Mark Wahlberg and David O Russell - they've made some great films together and this could turn out fine. De Niro and Pesci hijacking with a load of unnecessary business is far more troubling.

  • Spekingur #21 1 year ago

    Either Joe Flanigan or Nathan Fillion should have gotten the role :/
    Both have this natural Nathan Drake attitude.

  • Kaminari #22 1 year ago

    Wake me up when Uncharted 3 is out.

  • paulf #23 1 year ago

    the fighter is a really good film

  • King_of_Badgers #24 1 year ago

    @spekingur, good call on joe flanagan, he even looks like drake. Shame he hasn't been heard of since Stargate: Atlantis...

  • Spekingur #25 1 year ago

    Well, according to imdb.com Joe Flanigan is working on a couple of TV movies, one "B movie" judging by the cover it has on imdb and a Stargate Atlantis movie. So he is keeping busy enough :D
    Yes, Joe Flanigan looks eerily like Nathan Drake.

  • evild_edd #26 1 year ago

    Don't necessarily have an issue with Wahlberg (he's sometimes decent, sometimes terrible), but even as someone yet to play the series, expanding the character set to include a family sounds unnecessary and a bit naff....

    ....well, it sounds a bit like National Treasure!

  • Caimbeul #27 1 year ago

    Continues to not be reassured by this news and worries for the film.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #28 1 year ago

    Mark Whalberg is not a bad character actor. The problem is that he is utterly lacking in charisma, and as such is a terrible blockbuster movie leading man. Naughty Dog and Nolan North's portrayal of Nathan Drake is very charismatic indeed, and Mark Whalberg, for all the Boogie Nights and Three Kings in the world is unable to play that character.

  • PlugMonkey #29 1 year ago

    "On what planet though does Nathan Fillion have the pulling power of someone like Wahlberg? Outside of the Serenity and Firefly crowds, he really isn't a well known actor in any way shape or form."

    But if you drew the venn diagram of video game fans and the Serenity/Firefly crowd, I think you'd find quite a lot of crossover.

    But then again, nobody making a video game movie adaptation ever really seems to worry about the fans of the game. Which is odd. Aren't they the target market? If you change everything to go after a more mainstream audience, don't you end up alienating your target market and then presenting an ip to a brand new audience who have no interest in or even knowledge of it? Won't doing that make your movie a failure?

    How come we can see that this has happened to every video game to movie adaptation in history, but the people making them can't?

    How come when ip moves in the other direction, games developers stick to what was popular about the ip in the first place?

    For example, then Rocksteady started work on Batman: Arkham Asylum, you'll notice that they didn't decide to 'improve' Batman by making him come from a family of globe trotting antique dealers. They got the Batman license, so they did Batman. If Batman wasn't already awesome, they wouldn't have bothered getting the license. It's not rocket science.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #30 1 year ago

    How come when ip moves in the other direction, games developers stick to what was popular about the ip in the first place?

    ahem: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/Sop_eg...

  • PlugMonkey #31 1 year ago

    @MentalistL Yeah, sometimes people also fuck it up. Superman 64 leaps to mind, along with many others.

    But if you fancy a game of "successful ip crossover tennis", I reckon I'd be a strong favourite standing on the videogames side of the court.

    I'll modify my earlier statement to:

    "How come when ip moves in the other direction, games developers are capable of sticking to what was popular about the ip in the first place? "

  • Toothball #32 1 year ago

    They should do the same thing as they did with The Hulk, where they somehow end up with two of the same movie made by different teams.

  • FortysixterUK #33 1 year ago

    Whilst Fillion may want the film to "enhance" his career, but I think there's a good chance it will be a duffer , like Max Payne the movie , which had all the ingredients, but they just didn't mix.
    I'd llike to be wrong about Uncharted the movie, as I love the games, but traditionally with game (and comic adaptions), the makers screw around with the stories and screw it all up. Which is odd, 'cos the good stories are already there, the film makers just choose to ignore them.
    Joe Flannigan ( he of Stargate Atlantis ) would have been a better choice for Drake as someone else pointed out in an earlier post.

  • soviet_ #34 1 year ago

    Used to dislike Wahlberg but I think that was more down to some of his poorer films ie. Four Brothers, Italian Job etc.

    He was great in The Departed and Boogie Nights and he is actually pretty funny. In The Other Guys he matches Ferrell and in I Heart Huckabees he's extremely good. Only heard positive things about The Fighter but I agree with Mentalist(air) as I don't think he can pull off the blockbuster star roll but we will have to see

  • geordiek #35 1 year ago

    God they have really missed the marky mark

  • Tonne #36 1 year ago

    Wahlberg is a fine actor ( except for that abomination they called max payne) but Marky Mark cant be Nathan Drake,
    nathan drake is witty funny and not very serious, those are traits that Marky Mark doesnt have in his funky bunch.

  • BOBBYLUPO #37 1 year ago

    Can't believe there are no mentions of The Happening.

    Doesn't anyone care what happens to the bees!?

  • curtlikesmeat #38 1 year ago

    Maybe some more research is needed. A few days ago some big film sites were quoting the director saying the above casting was rubbish....

  • curtlikesmeat #39 1 year ago

    A sliver of hope:

    http://www.chud.com/26985/uncharted-stor...

  • BlinkeredAxis #40 1 year ago

    I quite like Mark W, but he's not a patch on Nathan Fillion, especially for something like this where so many of the Sci-Fi/Gamer folk are fans of his from Buffy/Firefly/Halo ODST etc.

    Strange(ish) decision, but I'm happy to be proved wrong.

  • Zastai #41 1 year ago

    No Fillion, no purchase. That's as silly as making an A Team film and having Liam Neeson play Hannibal.

  • lemonfist #42 1 year ago

    Joe Pesci? I thought that guy was dead or had been abducted by aliens, or something, 'cause I haven't seen him in anything since the 90's.

  • Lemming81 #43 1 year ago

    Bit misleading. As far as I know Fillion was never in the running to play Drake, he was just the fan favourite. So he's not 'lost' anything.

    That being said, would anyone really want the guy right for the role playing Drake in a movie that sounds completetly unlike Uncharted? Lucky escape for Fillion I think.
    Edited by Lemming81 at 12/01/11 @ 21:49

  • Spekingur #44 1 year ago

    Sometimes, just sometimes, the actor makes the movie great.

  • mastershots #45 7 months ago

    Bruce Campbell should be sully! the sam axe charecter bruce plays on 'burn notice' almost mirrors sully and they look very similer!
    Edited by mastershots at 15/10/11 @ 07:10