Box office gold may be the one treasure that has eluded Uncharted’s Nathan Drake, but that may soon change, as Sony has lined up screenwriter and director Joe Carnahan to write the next draft of the potential Uncharted live-action movie.

Variety was the first to report the news, and Carnahan himself confirmed that he will only write Uncharted, because he is already slated to direct Bad Boys 3 next year. Carnahan’s previous credits include Smokin’ Aces, The Grey, Narc, and The A-Team adaptation, as well as the TV series The Blacklist.

While Carnahan expressed regret about being able to helm Uncharted himself, he sounds very excited about joining the project as a writer. “Archaeology today is in itself an antiquity, but that world has always fascinated me,” Carnahan told Variety. “Especially when you go to a museum today and wonder how a piece got there to begin with. Plus, the property itself is so popular that it was hard to turn down an opportunity to work on it.”

Naughty Dog’s Uncharted video game franchise came to an end earlier this year with the release of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. The game series and its leading character seemed to draw a great deal of inspiration from Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, while Nathan Drake himself was depicted as more of an ordinary everyman than his fictional rivals.

There is currently no announced release date for the Uncharted film, but it appears that Sony is hoping to begin shooting it as soon as next year.

Are you excited to see Carnahan’s take on Uncharted? Who would you cast as Nathan Drake? Reveal your choices in the comment section below!

Image: Naughty Dog