Before HBO Max started developing a series adaptation of the hit video game The Last of Us, there was a film adaptation in the works at Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems, who were best known for the Resident Evil franchise. Sam Raimi was set to direct it, but The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann was not happy with the direction that the studio executives wanted to take the movie.
In an interview with The New York Times, Druckmann explained that the studio was geared toward making “a particular kind of movie.” He didn’t trust the studio executives because, apparently, they kept pushing for a “bigger and sexier” movie.
While they were looking to do that, Druckmann wanted the film’s aesthetic to be more like No Country for Old Men, and they wanted something more like World War Z. He also had a fear that fifteen hours of gameplay couldn’t properly be condensed into a two-hour feature film.
Screen Gems was never able to crack a film adaptation and they relinquished the rights. After that Druckmann was informed by Carter Swan, the executive in charge of I.P. expansion at PlayStation, that screenwriter Craig Mazin shared Druckmann’s opinion on The Last of Us not being able to be properly adapted into a movie. So, Druckmann said: “Wait, the Chernobyl guy? Why can’t I meet with him?” And now we have the series coming!
Mazin also recently spoke to Empire about The Last of Us and explained that it’s the best story in all of gaming: "It's an open-and-shut case: this is the greatest story that has ever been told in video games. [Joel and Ellie] didn't shoot anything out of their eyeballs. They were just people. And that, in and of itself, is remarkably rare in games. The fact that they kept it so grounded, and really made you feel – I had never experienced anything like it, and I've been playing video games since 1977."
The Last of Us takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed by a deadly virus. Joel (Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie (Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone to the Fireflies, a cure-searching organization. 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.
Pedro Pascal stars in the series as Joel, and Bella Ramsey is taking on the role of Ellie in the upcoming video game adaptation. They are joined by Gabriel Luna as Joel's brother Tommy, Anna Torv, Merle Dandrige, Nick Offerman, Storm Reid, Nico Parker, Gabriel Luna, Jeffrey Pierce, and Murray Bartlett.
The series drops on HBO Max on January 15th, 2023.
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