Nathan Fillion as Nathan Drake is all our geeky dreams come true

At least once a year, the claims begin. “This is the one,” they cry. “This is the one that will change it all. This is the one that will finally be good.” Good? At this point, we’d settle for a video game adaptation that was watchable. Warcraft! It’s directed by Duncan Jones! Nope. Assassin’s Creed! From the stars and director of Macbeth! Nope. Eh… Resident Evil 25? Never mind.

While we wait for reboots of Doom that nobody asked for and the sequel to Angry Birds that might spell the end of culture, Hollywood still stubbornly refuses us the one movie adaptation we’ve been clamouring for. No, not Raving Rabbids: The Movie, although now that you mention it… No, we’re talking about Uncharted. And most importantly, one starring Nathan Fillion as Nathan Drake.

From the first moment that some brilliant person spotted the similarities between treasure hunting wisecracker Drake and the impossibly dashing Firefly and Slither star Fillion, pleas for the two to be brought together have been numerous, including some from Fillion himself. However, the game’s progress towards filmhood has been slow as molasses, several attempts falling at early hurdles, and none of them ever including the man who was born for the role. The last we heard, Sony were developing a young Nathan Drake story starring Tom Holland, which isn’t ideal but is still better than the previous idea involving Mark Wahlberg.

So, Fillion has finally got sick of all this messing about and made the film himself. Well, not entirely, but close enough to ensure we’re going to be extremely upset if this is as far as it goes. Fillion teamed up with Canadian director Allan Ungar to make a short film of him as Drake and the resulting 15-minute short was uploaded to YouTube this week. Ok, so it’s not perfect, but it’s still pretty damn good. The dialogue doesn’t quite zing like the games’ best moments and some of the acting is wooden enough to make for a decent coffee table, but the production values are excellent and Fillion is every bit as wonderful in the role as we hoped he’d be. Watch the whole thing below, imagine a supporting cast and script up to Fillion’s standard and we’re one step closer to breaking this video game hoodoo.