'Limitless' Director Finds 'Drake's Fortune'

Neil Burger, who most recently helmed the surprise box office hit Limitless, has zeroed on his next project: the adaptation of video game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

Burger is in final negotiations to write and direct the action-adventure movie, being made by Columbia Pictures.

The move comes after the late May’s exit of filmmaker David O.Russell, the indie auteur whose 200-page draft was 1) 200 pages, and 2) introduceda slew of new characters that did not appear in the video game. “Creative differences” were cited.  

Those not up to speed on Uncharted, here’s a quick primer: a treasure hunter named Nate Drake -- a descendent of explorer Sir Francis Drake -- believes he has learned the whereabouts of the fabled golden South American city El Dorado from a cursed statue. His search for El Dorado becomes competitive when a rival hunter joins the fray, then is racheted up several notches when creatures -- actually mutated descendants of Spaniards and Nazis -- begin attacking those hoping to learn the treasure's true secrets.

Russell had been touting Uncharted as a reunion between him and Mark Wahlberg, the star of the director’s Oscar-nominated boxing drama The Fighter.  It is unclear at this time if Walhberg is still interested in the project.

Priot to Limitless, Burger wrote and directed the Iraq war drama The Lucky Ones as well as the period magician thriller The Illusionist.