The Last of Us could have been a movie: here’s why it ended up as a TV series

Last of us it could have been a movie. Although the HBO production is now recognized as one of the series for now – and perhaps the year – this project was close to being released in a different format. Some of the names that are currently part of the game’s adaptation were involved in this initiative, others such as director Sam Raimithey are no longer

Relationships between video games and films or television adaptations have not been successful. Several productions have been tried in recent years, and most of them have not been surpassed. At times, with many possible explanations, the format chosen for the project seemed counterproductive.

Some of this influenced or was taken into account in relation to the film. Last of us. How to make a story in almost twenty hours, there are only two in the game? Questions of this style often cross these productions. Sometimes the power of the script seems to support everything, but other times it doesn’t.

The last of yous: the movie that never happened

This story began almost ten years ago. IN 2014, Screen Gemsthe company through which Sony sold products such as resident Evilwill be responsible for the distribution of the video game developed by playful puppy. The initiative will go hand in hand with Ghost House Picturesthe company of director Sam Raimi, who will head the project.

Everything seemed to be on track, including the involvement of one of the game’s creators, Neil Druckmann. He will be in charge of the adaptation script live actionin movie format Last of us. However, these initial bases were not enough. For a year and a half, according to Druckmann, the idea stagnated. The co-author of the game even stated New Yorker next:

“I helped create unexploredbut it didn’t come out of me like it did Last of us. If we make a bad version Last of usit will tear me apart”

Neil Druckmann, New Yorker

Why might it hurt? According to Sam Raimi’s explanation reviewed Comic, Part of the problem is that Neil Druckmann’s idea was different from what Screen Gems wanted from the film. Last of us. While the creative was betting on something like No room for the weak (2017), the company expected something more like World War Z (2013).

Having recently revived this old project during an interview given by ughactor Geoffrey Pierce commented: “No matter how good it is, it will never become a great film.“. Pierce played Tommy Miller in the video game, and in the HBO adaptation, he stepped into the role of Perry.

Timing and HBO adaptation

Estimated that at best you can go through the whole story Last of us it can take about 20 hours of gameplay. So this represents one of the first hurdles for any type of adaptation: how to group this time, action, and different moments between characters in a cinematic format? Geoffrey Pearce answered this question during an interview:

“In two hours of work, how are you going to tell 14-17 stories? So I think there was some talk that maybe it would be better to make a series of animated films at some point. It seemed like a good idea.”

Geoffrey Pierce, EW.

Last of us There will be ten episodes in total and over two hours of adaptation. There are currently five episodes available on HBO Max. The narrative focuses on the relationships that can develop in a post-apocalyptic world, where childhood acts as one of the axes of the story, and the humanization of its characters trying to survive in chaos.

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It’s non-stop to establish permalinks with a video game. The influence is not only obvious, but sometimes the rest seems like a tribute. Although the previous competition was not very relevant, The last of youIt looks like it’s destined to be the best video game adaptation so far.