In a recent article in The New Yorker, Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckman and host of the HBO series The Last of Us, Craig Mazin, discuss the evolution of video games. In particular, they talked about how The Last of Us was being adapted for TV, and what’s next for Naughty Dog.
Originally there was a lot of talk about the curse of the video game adaptation. Let’s be honest, unless you’re a Sonic the Hedgehog 2 fan, video game adaptations for the silver screen have never done that well. Our TV adaptation. On the other hand, Mazin said with a laugh, “it’s going to make things worse.”
“Sometimes adaptations don’t work because the source material isn’t strong enough. Sometimes they don’t work because the people who made it didn’t understand the source material,” Druckmann said. However, Druckmann believes that the relationship between video games and adaptations has changed somewhat, and for the better.
All in all, Druckmann seems convinced that video games, film, and television can converge, especially given the willingness of various industry professionals to switch between media. One example is composer and Academy Award winner Gustavo Santaolalla’s score for The Last of Us.
That got Druckmann talking about Naughty Dog’s future plans. The next project is said to be “structured more like a TV show” than anything the studio has produced before, and the co-presidents have been assembling an entire writers’ room for the project.
The Last of Us is set to premiere on HBO Max on January 15, 2023. Will you tune in, or are you more excited for Naughty Dog’s next project?
