David O. Russell comments on the internet backlash to his Uncharted adaptation

February 21st 2011, 9:33am

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Normally if you get an Oscar-nominated director reuniting with the star of his Best Picture nominated film for the adaptation of your video game property, you’re probably a pretty happy camper. Not so much though with fans of the popular video game “Uncharted” who were less than enthused with Russell’s involvement with their beloved franchise.

Just look at the comments (currently at only 10% positive) under this article. Said one commenter, “Doing it like this is only going to piss off the fans (your primary box office fuel) and make everyone involved look ignorant and arrogant. And if there is one person in Hollywood who doesn’t need any help looking more ignorant and arrogant, it’s David O. Russell. Dude comes off like such an asshole.”

Slashfilm caught up with Russell recently and asked him to address the negative feedback (backlash?) to him directing the UNCHARTED movie.

Says Russell, “I’m very respectful as far as the core content and spirit of the game, but beyond that it’s my job as a filmmaker to make what I think is going to be an amazing movie. People have to trust that and let that go, I think. There’s not a bunch of movies you can point to that are made from games that are amazing movies, that stand up to time as a franchise or as [individual films]. I personally think it’s really cool when you see that someone like Darren Aronofsky is going to make an X-Men movie or to get someone such as myself to make this picture. You can be guaranteed that it’s going to be real, it’s going to be raw, it’s going to be intense, it’s going to be original, and it’s going to be propulsive.”

So c’mon guys, he’s just trying to be propulsive. On the one hand, I get it. You can’t remain slavishly faithful to the source material and sacrifice the narrative of your film. But on the other hand, I understand the point that once you change the narrative so much, you’re no longer making an adaptation of the property in question.

What do you think? Is Russell saying the right things? Can he pull this off?