Fanboy favourite Fillion cool with losing Uncharted to Wahlberg

Posted on March 3, 2011 By Jennifer Cassidy Culture, The Latest

Nathan Fillion at the 2005 Serenity premiere.

Image via Wikipedia

These days, he’s likely Edmonton’s most successful T.V. Export, … but Nathan Fillion is making headlines more for the projects he won’t be involved in than for those he will.

Fillion has told The Nerdish podcast that despite fans’ wishes and campaigning online, he’s not in the running to star as Nathan Drake in the film adaption of the hit PS3 video game Uncharted. It’s being directed by Academy Award nominee David O. Russell.

The Edmonton actor has become a favourite among video game and sci-fi fanboy culture after his role in the late-lamented Joss Wheddon show Firefly on Fox, in which he played a roguish space captain. And one fan even went as far as trying to sell Russell in public on Fillion, a former cast member in the local comedy soap improv Die-Nasty.

But Russell has reportedly chosen Mark Wahlberg, his collaborator in The Fighter, for the role instead. Fillion was graceful about the decision.

“Mark Wahlberg, I think that’s a talented guy,” said Fillion. “I think he does great work, that guy and he’s a huge international star, which I am not. I am not. I will be. So sure I would have loved it. But I can’t fault anybody for any of the choices they make,” he continued.

The local lad, who stars in ABC’s Castle as a detective novelist who helps a hard-boiled cop/love interest solve crimes, made headlines a few weeks back when he mused that if he won $300 million in the lottery he’d use it to buy the rights to Firefly, so that he could turn the show into an ongoing online show.

That prompted several of the show’s former writers to comment that they’d throw their lot in with Fillion if he could get the rights, and fans in turn started a Facebook group to try to raise the money called “Help Nathan Buy Firefly.” As of last night, it had 112,212 supporters who had “liked” its page, which so far is refusing to take donations at Fillion’s suggestion.

He told the magazine Backstage that the whole thing felt somewhat out of control. “My God, listen: It makes me scared just to say something nice about “Firefly” when people then say, “Let’s gather money.” Please, don’t send money. I made an offhanded comment about “Wouldn’t that be great?”

“I was dreaming about if I were to win $300 million, what could I do? But please, don’t send money to a website. It’s not that easy—you’re looking at a television program that costs $1 million an episode to make. I really don’t have a plan. I have lots of ideas when it comes to $300 million and the lottery, but I’m not really looking into property in the south of France right now.

The Facebook page posted a message yesterday entitled “Moving forward.”

“Today, Nathan Fillion gave a great interview to Backstage.  He specifically says not to send any money to a website. We here at HNBF whole-heartedly agree, which is why we are gauging interest in a fan-funded production instead of setting up a bank account,” the account administrators wrote.

“If it were as easy as just raising a lot of money, we would have a campaign running with Kickstarter from day one.  We set up the pledge system to see what a small group of fans could do together.  What we’ve seen is more than just money: we’ve seen a great community shout “We are Mighty!” because they want a chance to revisit the world and characters they love.”

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