Filmmaker Shawn Levy, who most recently executive produced the first season of Netflix's hit series Stranger Things, while directing two episodes of the show, has come aboard to breathe new life into Sony's long-gestating video game adaptation Uncharted. Joe Carnahan was previously set to direct from his own script, but he recently had to part ways with the project, due to his commitment to another Sony project, Bad Boys For Life, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. With Shawn Levy now on board, the movie has been put on the fast track, but it remains unclear when filming may begin.

Deadline broke the news about Shawn Levy taking the helm, but no further details about this project were given. Joe Carnahan wrote the most recent version of the script, but it isn't known if Shawn Levy will direct from that draft, or if another writer will be brought in. Shawn Levy is just the latest in a string of filmmakers that have tried to get this project off the ground over the past six years.

We first reported on the Uncharted movie back in November 2009, when screenwriters Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (Voltron: Defender of the Universe) took over the writing duties from Kyle Ward (Machete). David O' Russell came aboard to direct in 2010, when Mark Wahlberg was being eyed to play the iconic Nathan Drake. Neil Burger (Divergent) was next slated to direct, with National Treasure writers Cormac Wibberley and Marianne Wibberley tasked with writing the script. Seth Gordon came aboard in 2014, when it was rumored that filming would start in early 2015, with Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) taking a crack at the script.

Chris Pratt also passed on the Nathan Drake role in November 2014, just a few months after Guardians of the Galaxy opened in theaters. David Guggenheim (Safe House) also worked on the script before Joe Carnahan took over the writing duties. Charles Roven, Avi Arad, Alex Gartner and Ari Arad producing for Sony, with Jonathan Kadin overseeing the project for the studio. Sony had most recently set a June 30, 2017 release date for Uncharted, but they pulled it from their release schedule.

The project is based on the long-running video game series of the same name, following Nathan Drake, a descendant of Sir Francis Drake, who goes on a quest to find the lost city of El Dorado. Along the way, he runs into a rival treasure hunter, who must team up to fend off creatures, mutated Spaniards and Nazis. Shawn Levy is also slated to direct even more episodes of Stranger Things in Season 2. He most recently directed the big screen sequel Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, and he also directed the pilot episode of the upcoming ABC series Imaginary Mary, from The Goldbergs creator Adam F. Goldberg.