The Last of Us was almost made into a movie before it became a series, and we may well have avoided the worst thanks to Neil Druckmann.
Around 2014, shortly after the undeniable success of the first The Last of Us, a film adaptation by Screen Gems, a Sony subsidiary, was launched. Sam Raimi (evil Dead, Doctor Strange 2) was then selected to direct the feature film and the names of Maisie Williams (game of thrones) and Bruce Campbell ( evil Dead) circulate here and there. But things aren’t going smoothly here for Neil Druckmann.
Close to a The Last of Us with Milla Jovovich (no, but not far)
During an interview with The New YorkerDruckmann returned to what had happened with the film The last of us
For the creator of The last of us, the Screen Gems movie definitely went in the wrong direction. This Sony subsidiary had managed to make a name for itself by adapting the franchise resident Evil which spawned (too many?) several Paul WS Anderson films starring Milla Jovovich. In Neil Druckmann’s terms, Screen Gems was producing films of “a very special kind” at the time. And as the project progressed, Neil Druckmann became more hesitant.
The other producers kept saying they wanted something “big” and “sexy,” a popcorn blockbuster that would appeal to as many people as possible. An action-packed film close at hand World War Z. While Neil on his part was more hoping to focus on the narrative, to prove to a large audience that the video game is capable of bringing a real story, a real narrative construction and more.
As a result, Neil Druckman had worn Screen Gems through the fight and the studio dropped the case. Sony then actively sought another collaborator to begin work on his film before the soufflé wore off.
That’s when Druckmann began to lose patience too, and during one of his conversations with Carter Swan, head of licensing expansion at Sony, the creator of The last of us He banged his fist on the table and pounded that he thought “a movie wasn’t a good way to adapt his game” to succeed, to which Carter replied that Craig Mazin (whom he had previously met) accepted the offer, to make a film, for exactly the same reasons. And that’s exactly why Druckman decided to meet the Chernobyl showrunner.
A series to save them all
We know the rest. Neil Druckman and Craig Mazin worked together to adapt The last of us in series by surrounding himself with a 5-star cast. The show will start airing on HBO Max from January 15 and should be hitting homes in no time, although we don’t yet know when or on which platform.
In any case, Neil Druckmann is betting heavily on this series and even hopes that it will break the curse of video game adaptations for cinema and television.
It must be said that lately the video game has only had the right to illuminate films, like sound etc Detective Pikachuor totally failed projects like the series resident Evil or the movie Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (yes there are many resident Evilbut it’s not our fault).
series The last of us hopes to establish itself as a faithful adaptation and serious series focused on its narrative and characters, rather than just popcorn entertainment. We just want to see everything.
