Before HBO started developing a series adaptation of The Last of Us, Screen Gems and Sony was developing a film with producer Sam Raimi and video game director Neil Druckmann, who was written the script. The project never ending up getting off the ground and now we know the reason why.
During a recent interview with the Script Apart podcast, Druckman said that the project fell apart because the studio wanted to put a bigger focus on the action set-pieces: “When I worked on the movie version, a lot of the thinking and notes were like ‘how do we make it bigger? How do we make the set pieces bigger?’”
The writer went on to say that this led to the downfall of the project, explaining: “It didn’t work for The Last of Us and I think that’s ultimately why the movie wasn’t made.”
For those of you who have played the game, you know that while there is a good amount of intense action, there are also slower, slow-burning character elements that moved the story along. The studio wanted to sacrifice that stuff for bigger action. Druckmann goes on to say that the TV series project has helped capture the team’s original intentions for the game. When talking about their approach, he explained:
“Our approach for The Last of Us was ‘Let’s make it as an indie film’. Let’s approach it as an indie film team, the way it’s shot, the way how small and intimate it feels. And with the show we get to lean into that even more because we don’t have to have as many action sequences as we do in the game.
“In the game, there’s certain mechanics for pacing purposes. You have to engage those mechanics every once in a while, you need enough combat to train those mechanics. And you can throw all that out [for the TV show], because now we’re in a different medium. Let’s play to the strengths of this medium.”
I think the series adaptation is going to work much better than the film. The series stars Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and Gabriel Luna as Tommy.
The story “takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.”
Joel, is described as having a “tormented by past trauma and failure,” and he “must trek across a pandemic-ravaged America, all the while protecting a girl who represents the last hope of humanity.” Ellie is that last hope.
The project is being developed by Craig Mazin, the creator of HBO’s acclaimed limited series Chernobyl. He wrote the show and is executive producing with Druckmann. The pilot for the project will be helmed by Russian filmmaker Kantemir Balagov, who directed the drama Beanpole.
It’s said that HBO is “aiming for a serious dramatic tone for the adaptation.” The rest of the production team includes Carolynn Strauss (Chernobyl) and Carter Swan along with Evan Wells of Naughty Dog and Asad Qizilbash from PlayStation Productions. Kantemir Balagov is directing the pilot episode of The Last Of Us.