Tom Holland is one of the most sought-after actors in the world at the moment. He gained international recognition for his role as Peter Parker a.k.a Spider-Man in the Marven Cinematic Universe. He also starred in other acclaimed films such as Devil All The Time and Cherry.
Holland also headlined the cinematic adaptation of the game Uncharted. He starred as the protagonist Nathan Drake and featured with Mark Wahlberg. He revealed that he was cast in the role after he pitched a weird James Bond film to Sony Pictures that was rejected.
Tom Holland’s Ridiculous James Bond Pitch
Actor Tom Holland has a great relationship with Sony Pictures. He headlines one of the studio’s most profitable IPs, Spider-Man. While the studio produces the Spider-Man films with the MCU, it still retains the rights to the character. Tom Holland has starred as the superhero in a solo trilogy as well as appeared in other MCU offerings such as Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.
Holland has mentioned that he was a huge fan of the James Bond franchise and especially loves the Daniel Craig films. With Craig having departed from the character after his last film No Time To Die, Agent 007 is free to be taken up by anyone. With this in mind, Holland claims that he pitched his own version of Bond to Sony. In an interview with Seth Myers on the Late Night show, Holland said,
“It didn’t work out quite as planned…And I just thought: If they were to move on it would be really exciting to see how James Bond becomes James Bond. So I pitched this idea for a movie…essentially you wouldn’t tell the audience that it was a James Bond movie until the end, but from a marketing point of view, that’s a nightmare. Like that just doesn’t make any sense.”
James Bond is a precious piece of IP that uses its brand value to get audiences to theatres. Removing that aspect from the film would just make it a normal espionage film that would be a marketing disaster.
Tom Holland’s James Bond Pitch Lead To Him Being Cast In Uncharted
Tom Holland admitted that the idea of a secret James Bond film seemed very stupid in retrospect as it would be impossible to market the film. In an interview with Total Film, he spoke about the dream project,
“It was the origin story of James Bond. It didn’t really make sense. It didn’t work. It was the dream of a young kid, and I don’t think the Bond estate was particularly interested.”
However, the pitch of an origin story gave Sony Pictures the idea to use that direction in an Uncharted film. The adaptation of the popular video game has been in development since 2008 and has been in various stages of production with different directors being hired and exiting the project. Mark Wahlberg was also attached back then but was supposed to play Nathan Drake. After years of script re-writes and missing deadlines, the film was finally in development again, with Holland’s pitch giving the producers the right direction.
Also read: “My naivete as a kid”: Tom Holland Said There’s No Redemption for What He Did to Andrew Garfield
Holland mentioned in an interview,
“The idea of a young Bond film sparked this idea, in turn, that you could do a Nathan Drake story as an origin story, rather than as an addition to the games. And that opened a conversation.”
Holland was cast as Nathan Drake with Mark Wahlberg playing the role of his mentor Victor Sullivan. The action-adventure film was set to be directed by Ruben Fleischer, who directed Venom. The film was critically panned but earned $400 million at the box office. While fans of the game have criticized the film, especially it being positioned as an origin story, Sony has expressed interest in making a sequel.
Uncharted is currently streaming on Netflix.
Source: Late Night With Seth Myers
