For years, gamers have been dream-casting Fillion as Nathan Drake, the thrill-seeking tomb raider of theUnchartedfranchise.
So keep your fingers crossed.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Your fan film was quite the surprise.
Credit: Allan Ungar/YouTube
How long had you guys been sitting on this project?
ALLAN UNGAR:January.
NATHAN FILLION:Yeah.
January is when we started plotting it.
Did we shoot it in May?
Whose idea was it to make a short film like this?
UNGAR: The idea had come to me a couple years ago.
Can you walk me through assembling the team?
It was also a surprise to see someone like Stephen Lang involved with this project.
FILLION:Right?!
That was so cool.
UNGAR:Yeah, it’s funny.
Bruce Campbell emailed me today to say he thought it was great.
So he was really happy that it was Stephen Lang.
We have to call him Slang ‘cause he’ll get upset.
Once he hit 60, he decided he was getting a one-name title.
Slang and I had been friends for a few years.
I had popped one of them a note and said, “Hey, what do you think?
I’m gonna ask your pops if he might be interested in this.”
And they were like, “Oh my God!
yo, this would be incredible.”
At that point it was just Nathan and myself and our little team that decided to do this.
He had a great time.
You mentioned the “Power/Rangers” short that came out a while back.
There was that whole pushback from Saban where the video got pulled for being unofficial, and then reissued.
Was there a concern that releasing a project like this would have the same outcome?
UNGAR:Yes and no.
Nathan, what do you think?
It wasn’t that difficult.
Everybody felt like they were on the inside of something super-cool, and no one wanted to blow it.
You gotta take that down."
Like Nathan said, nobody knew what they were working on.
The movie’s codename was “Breaking and Entering.”
It was a short film, nobody thought anything of it.
Is this what I think it is?"
It just went from there.
People were just geeking out.
That fight sequence was pretty badass.
I was noticing even the hand-to-hand combat was very similar to Nathan Drake in the game.
Did you guys pore over gameplay footage?
How did you go about choreographing that?
Almost everything Nathan does in that fight is seen in one of the four games.
Did you guys end up shooting additional footage that you couldn’t fit in for whatever reason?
UNGAR:Nathan is obviously a funny guy, so he had some alternate lines in the scene.
I think we’re probably going to release a blooper reel and some of those extended moments.
We set out to make this 15 minutes, and we kept it in that timeframe.
The lighting was so gorgeous; the desk, the set was amazing.
UNGAR:We didn’t have to try harder.
Nathan, what was your first introduction to the game?
That’s all I got right now.
I have more story for that.
It’ll come out at another time.
Did anybody approach you about anythingUncharted-related?
Aside from Allan, of course.
We just wanted to see something.
And I’m very excited to see what Sony is coming up with.
I’m a huge Tom Holland fan.
I think that kid’s on fire.
He’s the best Spider-Man we’ve ever seen that’s a fact.
He’s just got the heart that the part needs.
I’m just excited to see what they come up with.
I think we just got tired of waiting.
Allan, can you talk a bit about developing this particular story?
UNGAR:Everybody wakes up in the morning with their routines.
There was always a really great list of real-life mystical cities and hidden treasures that hadn’t been explored.
Jesse Wheeler, who co-wrote this with me, we did a lot of extensive research.
Do you guys have any other plans at this point to do something elseUncharted-related?
So if you guys could make that happen, that’d be awesome.
UNGAR:[Laughs] Yeah.
I thought that way when I played the fourth one.
What are your personal rankings of theUnchartedgames?
UNGAR:I’m putting Nathan on the spot first.
And, I’m gonna confess right now, I cried twice enjoying the cut scenes of4.
There’s some brother heartstrings that they’re pulling in there.
That’s a motif that really hits home with me.
I’m all about my brother, the family stuff.
That’s the sound of a single tear going down my cheek.
UNGAR:I would say the same thing, to be honest.
As special as the first one was when it came out, the fourth one really resonated.
And then I would say the second one I would rank second.
I think that was insane what they were able to accomplish.
