Talk about inevitability! Any video game with guns like Lara Croft and a hero like the Prince of Persia, one that sold tons of copies, is destined for the big-screen treatment. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Columbia has grabbed PlayStation 3's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for development, and Kyle Ward (who is also busy with the pointless Hitman 2) is set to write the script.

The game focuses on the adventures of Nate Drake, as he pulls his ancestor Sir Francis Drake's coffin from the sea floor, only to find that there's no body inside -- only a diary that details the way to El Dorado. Naturally, Nate sets out to find the fabled land of gold, fighting rival hunters, only to find a forgotten island and a rather curse-ridden statue that takes things into the world of Indiana Jones. In other words -- cursed Nazis and supernatural occurrences. There's an old friend who serves as Nate's right-hand man, and a female journalist/love interest in need of saving.

As a game, it all seems well and good, but will people really bite into a story so very reminiscent of Indy? I guess every generation needs their historically inclined action hero. I just wonder how he'd fare against Lara Croft, who has her own reboot on the way...

Gore Verbinski and Bioshock just can't catch a break. Back in April, Universal put the breaks on the video game adaptation because of its swollen budget, estimated to be $160 million and rising. The studio was pushing Verbinski to move production to the U.K. and take advantage of the tax credits there.

Even then, Verbinski seemed reluctant to uproot the production, and now he's told the LA Times that he may be off the film because of it. "The bottom line is it has to shoot out of the States for budget reasons and my schedule may be prohibitive. There's a great script and a really interesting cast. It really comes down to the financial model now. Big movies are just not being shot in the States. I'm weighing whether I can physically go the U.K. or Australia or one of those other places with a tax rebate for a year-and-a-half."

It's entirely possible Verbinski will walk, and Bioshock will go forward with another director who won't mind going overseas to shoot. In the meantime, we can wonder if "interesting cast" is a confirmation that Wentworth Miller is really to play Frank Fontaine (doubtful since his alleged Twitter account that produced the rumor has been suspended), wonder who could replace Verbinski, and lament that the U.S. ships its big movies overseas in this economic crunch.

You know, I always thought that Lara Croft got a bum-rap on the big screen. When she should have been the love child of James Bond and Indiana Jones, what we ended up with was a bored Angelina Jolie pouting her way through half-baked plots. Now, we already knew that a 'reboot' was in the works, but it looks like there are going to be a lot of changes in store for Ms. Croft. During a press event for Terminator Salvation, producer Dan Lin spilled the beans that the Tomb Raider reboot will in fact, be a prequel. Lin told journalists, "... - it's a great origin story that we're going to tell. A very character-oriented I would say more realistic than the past Lara Croft movies."

According to Lin, casting for the role has yet to begin (now that Megan Fox is out of the running), but they are definitely looking for someone a little younger this time around. Whether the choice for a younger Croft is to capitalize on multiple flicks, or just to pander to the mall crowd, I couldn't say. But what I do know is that I think an adult Lara Croft is a much more exciting proposition than a precocious teen with a Nancy Drew complex -- and isn't it about time that we got some fully grown ladies fighting the good fight on the big screen again, anyway?

The project is still in the early stages of development, but Lin has warned fans that we might be getting a less 'active' Croft this time around, saying, "I would say it's like Terminator - character-driven action. I think for me the Lara Croft games and movies have gone a little too action-oriented. I wanted to have action, but with character." Now I might have only played a few of the Raider games, but seriously? When were those things about characters?

Tell us what you think about a young Lara Croft, and who you would like to see take over where Jolie left off.

[via Empire]

Weeks after Gore Verbinski abandoned Pirates to focus on Bioshock, Universal has put the freeze on the project, which was well into the pre-production stage. According to Variety the studio balked at the budget (which was estimated to be $160 million and rising to a cost described as "untenable"), halted production, and fired a few production staffers. Verbinski and Universal are currently debating how to make the film on a slimmer budget. One of their solutions is to move filming from L.A. to London. "We were asked by Universal to move the film outside the U.S. to take advantage of a tax credit," Verbinski said. "We are evaluating whether this is something we want to do. In the meantime, the film is in a holding pattern."

Everyone involved is stressing that Bioshock is not being abandoned like Halo was, but just restructured and refinanced in order to come in at a lower budget. The studio also froze Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, allowing it to be rewritten from that Nottingham idea, and come in with a $130 million budget. (We also got State of Play out of the deal which is kind of nice.)

I suppose the big question is whether a tighter budget will make a better Bioshock by forcing the creative team to rely on story and not special effects, or whether it will actually hamper the adaptation by saddling it with cheesy CG. I still haven't played it, but I constantly hear about the look and design of the game. It'll be a shame if that's compromised.

I have to admit it's kind of funny that if you do a quick search for the screenwriter Justin Marks, you will get "the guy they brought in to f*ck up He-Man" in your results (probably not very funny to him, but what can you do?). 'Digital reputations' aside, you have to hand it to the guy: with only a few credits to his name, he's managed to attach himself to some high-profile 'geek' properties in the last year. Marks will be working on McG's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo, as well as Green Arrow: Escape From Supermax and Suicide Squad for Warner Brothers. Now, the latest to be added to the pile according to Variety is courtesy of Sony, who has hired Marks to write the screenplay for a feature film version of the PlayStation 2 game, Shadow of the Colossus.

Colossus centers on a young man named Wander who must battle sixteen giant bad-guys -- and I mean giant -- if he wishes to restore the life of a young girl. The game wasn't your usual action adventure fare, and players spent most of their time traveling on horseback in a desolate (but beautiful) landscape. In fact, the only action you see is when you encounter one of the 'Colossi'. Ultimately, the title was less action and adventure, and more of a puzzle game where you had to discern the weakness of each Colossi if you were to have a hope in hell of defeating it.

Since the game itself is pretty sparse on the details, Marks will most likely be tasked with trying to fill in a little more story in between action set-pieces. Of course, the big question still remains: Is Marks your man if you're looking for interesting characters and a solid story?

Has it really been almost a month since me and maybe three other people paid to see Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li? As I said before, there were two things I took away from that experience: the haunting cadence of Michael Clarke Duncan's laughter, and the Razzie-worthy turn by Chris Klein as swaggering Interpol agent Charlie Nash. I can see the for-your-consideration ads now:

"Can only be described as epic in its awfulness" ... "I can't remember the last time I watched an actor fail to walk into a room convincingly" ... "So wooden that he makes Keanu Reeves seem like Don Knotts" ... "This shit is Ricotta, folks."

As several other reviews noted/hoped, his performance is one particularly ripe for a highlight reel on YouTube someday, and sure enough, an impatient individual of like mind cut one together (we put it after the jump). Running eleven minutes, I'm willing to bet it's actually every scene of his in the thing, and by the time he's yelling "NASH OUT!" into the nearest walkie-talkie, you'll be glad someone took the time.

Thanks to Pajiba for keeping an eye out, and remember: I call dibs on this costume for next Halloween. GOSS OUT!

Sigourney Weaver may have started warming to the idea of more Ghostbusters back in December, but that doesn't include lending her voice for the upcoming video game. She's out, and in her absence, Atari isn't going with just anyone. They're going with the daughter of a boss who has a little witchy charm.

That's right -- Variety reports that Alyssa Milano is lending her voice in the upcoming Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Luckily, it won't be as Weaver's Dana Barrett, which would probably cause an uproar. Instead, her character is "Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn, the brainy guest curator of a 'World of Gozer' exhibit at the Natural History Museum." It seems that Milano was approached once Weaver declined to come back to the fold. I guess they were a fan of her voice in Dinotopia and Jimmy Neutron.

It sucks that Weaver isn't involved in this latest Ghostbusters incarnation, but at least they did a heck of a job recruiting the rest of the classic cast. Of course, Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis, and Hudson are in there, but there's also Annie Potts' Janine, William Atherton's Walter, and Slavitza Jonan as Gozer. I just wish they could've brought Rick Moranis back to play. He might be largely absent from Hollywood for the past decade, but he did lend his voice for the Brother Bear flicks in 2003 and 2006.

Ah well. Back to the topic at hand: Think Alyssa can keep up with the big ghost-busting boys?

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