The Last of Us TV series in the works at HBO

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/last-us-series-works-at-hbo-chernobyl-creator-1282707

Craig Mazin, the creator of the acclaimed limited series Chernobyl, is reteaming with HBO to adapt The Last of Us, the massive Sony PlayStation video game franchise.

In a rare development in the world of video game adaptations, the writer and creative director of the game, Neil Druckmann, is also involved and will work with Mazin to pen and executive produce what is intended to be a series.

Carolyn Strauss will also executive produce along with Evan Wells, the president of Naughty Dog, the Santa Monica-based developer of the game. The project is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television in association with PlayStation Productions. It will be the first television series from PlayStation Productions.

Launched in 2013, Sony and Naughty Dog's The Last of Us garnered critical praise for its engrossing tale of the postapocalypse, centering on the relationship between Joel, a smuggler in this new world, and Ellie, a teenager who may be key to a cure for the deadly pandemic.

Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle the14-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. The HBO series will cover the events of the original game, which was written by Druckmann, with the possibility of additional content based on the forthcoming game sequel, The Last of Us Part II, which will release on May 29, 2020.

Mazin, who is said to be an avid player of the game, stated, "Neil Druckmann is without question the finest storyteller working in the video game medium, and The Last of Us is his magnum opus. Getting a chance to adapt this breathtaking work of art has been a dream of mine for years, and I'm so honored to do it in partnership with Neil."

"From the first time I sat down to talk with Craig I was equally blown away by his approach to narrative and his love and deep understanding of The Last of Us," said Druckmann in a statement. "With Chernobyl, Craig and HBO created a tense, harrowing, emotional masterpiece. I couldn't think of better partners to bring the story of The Last of Us to life as a television show."

The Last of Us won numerous "game of the year" awards and went on to sell more than 17 million copies across both its original release on the PlayStation 3 and a remastered version on PlayStation 4.

"This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for us to partner with Craig, Neil, Carolyn and the teams at Sony, Naughty Dog and PlayStation to bring the virtual world of this acclaimed game to life," stated HBO programming president Casey Bloys.

"This is the first of many shows we intend to develop with our friends at PlayStation Productions," said Chris Parnell, co-president of Sony Pictures Television Studios. The Last of Us is a brilliant achievement in storytelling and character development, and we are lucky to have the opportunity to work with this team to adapt it."

Druckmann is a longtime vet of Naughty Dog, starting as a programming intern in 2004. In 2007, he was given the role of game designer on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, the first installment in the action adventure series. In 2013, he created The Last of Us, based on a concept he developed as a student at Carnegie Mellon University.

Mazin's Chernobyl tackled a bleak and complex true-life event and became a must-see show for HBO. The show won an Emmy for outstanding limited series and landed one for Mazin for outstanding writing. Mazin also won a PGA award and a WGA award.

Huh. I wonder how the movie project is going. Wasn't there supposed to be one as well?

I'm not sure about that. I know there's been an Uncharted movie in development hell for a number of years now, but I wasn't aware of a TLoU movie in the works. TLoU is more suited to being an ongoing series, though. Joel and Ellie's journey across the United States would be better spread out into 16 episodes (or whatever the usual number is for a project of this scope) than crammed into 90 minutes.

Ah yes, actually found an article on the matter. Apparently the film was cancelled in favor of the tv show. https://www.gamesradar.com/the-last-of-us-movie-reportedly-cancelled-to-make-room-for-hbo-series/

Ah, I see. Well, like I said, TLoU's story is better spread out into an ongoing series rather than crammed into a 90 minute film. That way, the game's locales can be better explored and fleshed out.

Speaking of, wonder if being in a show form does RE any favors.

We'll see. But at least in terms of individual games' stories, RE has yet to take the "epic journey across long distances" approach that TLoU did (the flights from Rockfort Island to Antarctica in CV don't count). Joel and Ellie traversed over 2,300 miles over the course of the game.

But the RE series seems to be shaping up as its own thing rather than a game adaption.

RE6 did that. It went all over the place, from the US to China to Europe and finally on an aircraft carrier in the sea. This series reeeeeeally likes its massive ship locations. I think we're at 8 at this point, if you count the submarine from Voice of Gaia. Actually more if you count the fact that Revelations had three seperate ships.

But was it one continuous story arc, though? IIRC, each area had it's own self-contained story arc.

Ah yes, if you meant actually being there for the whole way, then no. It was a continuous story sure but the game skipped the travel parts. Well, at least for everyone but Leon who was stuck with the titty monster for his plane ride. What a horrible mini-boss that was.

That's not what I mean. Did the characters have the same endgame in mind throughout their travels, like Joel and Ellie trying to find a Firefly base of operation so that they could try to create a vaccine for the CBI using Ellie's immunity? I never played RE6 beyond the demo, but IIRC the only overall goal shared between the different characters' scenarios was a broad "stop bio-terrorism." Joel and Ellie shared a specific defined goal in TLoU, whereas the character teams in RE6 kind of just did their own things independent of each other in their scenarios.

Well yes and no. It all started with the outbreak in Tall Oaks and after that it was a whole conspiracy that all the characters got wrapped in. I guess you could say the end goal was to find out who was behind all the attacks and figure out the conspiracy. Of course all the characters did it mostly by their own way, Leon getting mixed up in the Tall Oaks incident with another agent called Helena, Sherry being sent to get Albert's offspring from Europe who she ended up teaming up with in another outbreak, Chris and Piers doing their BSAA stuff and Ada doing her own thing behind the scenes. But, all the characters do visit most of the locations and their stories intertwine in various points with everyone eventually teaming up to defeat Simmons, reveal his plans and bring down Neo Umbrella so they can't screw up the world with their new C-virus (which was the virus of the day for the game). So you know, the reasons and ways the cast went about it weren't all uniform but the end goal, eventually, was the same for everyone.

Yeah, it sounds a different from TLoU to me, with the different characters acting independently toward a broader goal while Joel and Ellie seeking a Firefly base of operations was an upfront constant for them both throughout. It's not unlike the manhunt for UBL in the years after 9/11, where every military and federal agency had the stated goal to capture him but not all were actively searching for him.

I'm not bashing RE6, I just don't think its story structure is the same as Joel and Ellie's journey in TLoU.

Is it real that Hugh Jackman is going to be Joel? Forreal? I don't know. I just saw it in Facebook lol

RebelliousQueen wrote:

Is it real that Hugh Jackman is going to be Joel? Forreal? I don't know. I just saw it in Facebook lol

No. According to IMDb, an actor by the name of Duncan Sage is playing Joel. I've never heard of him myself.

Ghost Leader wrote:

RebelliousQueen wrote:

Is it real that Hugh Jackman is going to be Joel? Forreal? I don't know. I just saw it in Facebook lol

No. According to IMDb, an actor by the name of Duncan Sage is playing Joel. I've never heard of him myself.

Oh good. I just don't think that Wolverine is the right one. I mean he's really not into it.

RebelliousQueen wrote:

Oh good. I just don't think that Wolverine is the right one. I mean he's really not into it.

No, I'm sure Jackman would do great. I mean, he's one of the few actors who's good in literally everything he does. Like Morgan Freeman, Jack Nicholson, and Jeffery Dean Morgan, to name a few, you can give him a shit script and he'll still make gold out of it.

I wonder if we'll get some Joel stories during the twenty year timeskip.

Nobudy wrote:

I wonder if we'll get some Joel stories during the twenty year timeskip.

Doubtful since the series will pretty much be a retelling of the game's story.

I'm hoping they'll fill in the gaps of their journey, instead of just recreating the set pieces from the game.