Recently, Uncharted star Tom Holland stated he’d like to make a Jak and Daxter movie given the chance. It seems the MCU‘s Spider-Man might’ve been onto something, as Ruben Fleischer, director of Uncharted, is working on an adventure movie based on Naughty Dog’s platform games.
Though he can’t talk much about the feasibility, Fleischer made the reveal in an interview with Digital Trends. “I’m actually working on Jak and Daxter, a version of that, for PlayStation, which I think would be really cool to bring to life,” he said, giving nothing away. Another blockbuster series for developer Naughty Dog, Jak and Daxter was the studio’s hallmark during the PlayStation 2 era.
It concerns the eponymous duo, an athletic teenage boy (Jak), and his best friend who’s turned into a weasel by dark matter (Daxter). In trying to fix Daxter, they embark on a journey that involves time travel, multiple forms of energy, dubbed ‘eco’, and lots of perilous jumping and climbing, to solve the mystery of the Precursors. We got three mainline games, and two spin-offs, but the franchise has been dormant for some time.
If the concept sounds familiar, you can definitely see the DNA of Uncharted, and Nathan Drake’s treasure hunting in Jak and Daxter. The advent of open-world sandboxes, and having multiple types of gameplay co-exist together allowed Naughty Dog to branch out from Crash Bandicoot’s linearity to something more cinematic.
The Uncharted series has been massive for the developer and Sony alike, hence the live-action film with Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland. Since The Last of Us, Naughty Dog’s other, other major property, is currently becoming an HBO series, Jak and Daxter seems like the most logical place to go next.
Uncharted will be in theatres February 11. Have a look at the best action movies for more hijinks.