In early 2018, Allan Ungar was sitting across from Nathan Fillion in a vegan Thai restaurant in Los Angeles. Hiding his nervousness, Ungar pitched his idea to the Hollywood star: he wanted to make a 15-minute, not-for-profit fan film, which he’d finance himself, based on the popular video game series Uncharted. Fillion, naturally, would play the game’s rugged Indiana Jones–style lead character, Nathan Drake.
Fillion was giddy. He’d been wanting to star in an Uncharted movie since 2010, when he publicly pushed for the role on Twitter, leading thousands of fans to support him with the hashtag #NathanFillionforNathanDrake. Fillion’s manager, sitting beside him in the restaurant, took a more measured approach, emphasizing that if this were to happen, it would have to be good.
Ungar nodded along. No problem, he assured them. It would be good. And it would be quick, too – he wanted to peg the film’s release to …