The Last of Us' Series in the Works at HBO From 'Chernobyl' Creator Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann (Exclusive)
MARCH 05, 2020 9:30AMby*Borys Kit, Patrick Shanley
Craig Mazin, the creator of the acclaimed limited series*Chernobyl,*is reteaming with HBO 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 and in association with PlayStation Productions and it will be the first television series from PlayStation Productions.
Originally launched in 2013, Sony and Naughty Dog’s*The Last of Us*garnered critical praise for its engrossing tale of the post-apocalypse centered on the relationship between Joel, a smuggler in this new world, and Ellie, a teenager who may be a 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.”
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 the 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 and a WGA Award.
it was 5 or 6 years after the first game which already had Joel opening up to Ellie, he was older, had been living an 'easier' life in Jackson, been with family, not smuggling, no Fedra, no cross country raiders etc. He was living a calmer life. The night before he was basically crying when Ellie said she wanted to forgive him. The whole of the first game and the beginning portions of game two paired with the flashbacks during game 2 serve the purpose of showing him softening perfectly, it just isn't in your face and obviously stated as such just the way they do with everything in both games. They show you, not tell you. They don't hold your hand and instead let you infer what's happening based on what they show. It's wonderful.
Spoiler!
it's been awhile since I played but that's what I thought as well. I loved the game and it did not bother me at all with what happened. I hated that it happened... I was shocked as I was never spoiled by leaks. I just assumed based on rage that Joel died somehow. I got to assume this upcoming season they have as much Joel and Ellie as possible before this happens. I can't wait to see how non gamers react.
it was 5 or 6 years after the first game which already had Joel opening up to Ellie, he was older, had been living an 'easier' life in Jackson, been with family, not smuggling, no Fedra, no cross country raiders etc. He was living a calmer life. The night before he was basically crying when Ellie said she wanted to forgive him. The whole of the first game and the beginning portions of game two paired with the flashbacks during game 2 serve the purpose of showing him softening perfectly, it just isn't in your face and obviously stated as such just the way they do with everything in both games. They show you, not tell you. They don't hold your hand and instead let you infer what's happening based on what they show. It's wonderful.
Spoiler!
You believe it's wonderful that a hardened fan favorite character that survived 40 years of an apocalypse, has more experience than most survivors, is just going to soften up into a complete fucking moron, trust people he doesn't know, and be summarily executed for his slippage.
THAT is what you consider a wonderful end to that character?
Lmmfgdao. I think you need to intern with Druckmann. He's always looking for another good bobblehead yes man.
The biggest laugh I get is when people try to defend the ending.
Ellie decides at the end to just let Abby **** off and leave. This at least should have been a player decision moment. Let her go, or kill her.
Instead, we are expected to believe this utter dumb****ery that NOW, only NOW after killing how many enemies in the game, that revenge is bad, and she needs to stop the cycle of revenge.
Ohhhhhh.
Okay. So this revenge concept doesn't apply to the other 200 ****ing people you **** in half in this game. It just applies to Abby. None of those people had anyone that might take offense to you deleting their comrade?
Well unfortunately Ellie, it's a bit late to decide you're a pacifist, because there's nobody better than Neil Druckmann at conjuring up a character out of the ****ing blue to take revenge for one of your prior acts.
The ending is completely pointless and unsatisfying. You go all this way, slaughtering people in droves, just to get to your goal, get your fingers bitten off, and decide, nah. I'm good. You can go.
Pointless waste of ****ing time.
So yes, let's take the two characters fans have waited 7 years for, advertise only them, let's murder the main character quickly, force this character I conjured out of the air on them to play through a redundant section with no tension, because we already know which characters are still alive on day 3, finally give Ellie back just to have her decide at the end she's good, and she will be left utterly broken, and completely alone.
Yes, the two main characters having shit rained on them is exactly what the fans want.
Spoiler for Last of Us 3: Owen had a third sexual partner, a gay forest Boi named Cletus. Great man bunn.
Cletus wanders in and discovers Owen dead, and shakes his fist at the sky with a Darth Vader Nooooooooooo, and surprise!! Dina didn't leave Ellie, nooo no no. Cletus kidnapped her as the first step in his plot against Ellie for killing his naughty proctologist.
I think we can all agree that what we are most excited to see is how Manny will be written in the show.
As you know, in the game, Manny was Mexican, and the player needed to be constantly reminded of that fact, and through Druckmann's utterly brilliant writing, he accomplished this by having Manny use only one Spanish word during his time in the story.
Pendejo. Yes, the ultimate reminder that this is a Mexican character. I think I lost count of the Pendejos uttered by Manny at around 65 times.
Spoiler!
I shed a tear as Tommy blew Manny's eye out of his head. As his cyclops corpse fell to the floor, the loss I felt was indescribable. The diversity of the cast took a massive hit, and a deep sadness washed over me as I realized that no more would I hear Pendejo in the game.
Originally Posted by The Franchise:
Cool. Then post it once or twice. Dude is just repeatedly shitting all over the thread with the same thing....over and over and over.
It's cool...you didn't like TLOU2. You aren't alone in that but it literally has zero bearing on your life.
But what did I expect? WallCrawler literally shits all over every thread he's about like he's some ****ing expert on EVERYTHING.
Feel free to scroll past the criticisms, Neil....er...The Franchise.
This is a discussion on how season 2 will be received by watchers of the series, and how if it follows the game (which it will, Druckmann can't take an L on his prize piece of shit revenge project he wanted to do since college, but was shot down at every turn by anyone with a modicum of common sense, and only when those people with moving brain cells left the company and Neil rose to VP and instituted groupthink over common ****ing sense did he get to have his way) then the fan backlash will be tremendous.
Perhaps instead of reading the criticisms I have about the terrible decisionmaking, writing, direction, and incoherent order of the storytelling that make you sad, maybe go enjoy a Neil Druckmann interview.
Perhaps the one in which he describes weeping at his own work. That always brightens my ****ing day.
In any case, the structure of season 2 almost has to change. You can't repeat the same mistakes of showing half the story from one side, and right at a key moment, stop the storytelling on that side to say
BUT WAIT! Let's now take a few episodes to see how we got here!
There will be no stakes, no tension, because viewers will already know where a lot of these key players end up.
Like I saw character A talking to character B on day 3, so when character A is in what is supposed to be a tense life or death moment, it falls flat, because I already know that character A makes it to talk to character B later.
Its going to have to fundamentally change. It can't become the story slog that the character switch in the game was. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Wallcrawler:
Feel free to scroll past the criticisms, Neil....er...The Franchise.
This is a discussion on how season 2 will be received by watchers of the series, and how if it follows the game (which it will, Druckmann can't take an L on his prize piece of shit revenge project he wanted to do since college, but was shot down at every turn by anyone with a modicum of common sense, and only when those people with moving brain cells left the company and Neil rose to VP and instituted groupthink over common ****ing sense did he get to have his way) then the fan backlash will be tremendous.
Perhaps instead of reading the criticisms I have about the terrible decisionmaking, writing, direction, and incoherent order of the storytelling that make you sad, maybe go enjoy a Neil Druckmann interview.
Perhaps the one in which he describes weeping at his own work. That always brightens my ****ing day.
In any case, the structure of season 2 almost has to change. You can't repeat the same mistakes of showing half the story from one side, and right at a key moment, stop the storytelling on that side to say
BUT WAIT! Let's now take a few episodes to see how we got here!
There will be no stakes, no tension, because viewers will already know where a lot of these key players end up.
Like I saw character A talking to character B on day 3, so when character A is in what is supposed to be a tense life or death moment, it falls flat, because I already know that character A makes it to talk to character B later.
Its going to have to fundamentally change. It can't become the story slog that the character switch in the game was.
Originally Posted by Wallcrawler:
Feel free to scroll past the criticisms, Neil....er...The Franchise.
This is a discussion on how season 2 will be received by watchers of the series, and how if it follows the game (which it will, Druckmann can't take an L on his prize piece of shit revenge project he wanted to do since college, but was shot down at every turn by anyone with a modicum of common sense, and only when those people with moving brain cells left the company and Neil rose to VP and instituted groupthink over common ****ing sense did he get to have his way) then the fan backlash will be tremendous.
Perhaps instead of reading the criticisms I have about the terrible decisionmaking, writing, direction, and incoherent order of the storytelling that make you sad, maybe go enjoy a Neil Druckmann interview.
Perhaps the one in which he describes weeping at his own work. That always brightens my ****ing day.
In any case, the structure of season 2 almost has to change. You can't repeat the same mistakes of showing half the story from one side, and right at a key moment, stop the storytelling on that side to say
BUT WAIT! Let's now take a few episodes to see how we got here!
There will be no stakes, no tension, because viewers will already know where a lot of these key players end up.
Like I saw character A talking to character B on day 3, so when character A is in what is supposed to be a tense life or death moment, it falls flat, because I already know that character A makes it to talk to character B later.
Its going to have to fundamentally change. It can't become the story slog that the character switch in the game was.
There weren't any problems with season 1 and it was pretty much universally loved by everyone except the worst douche trolls that have to find something wrong with everything. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dlphg9:
There weren't any problems with season 1 and it was pretty much universally loved by everyone except the worst douche trolls that have to find something wrong with everything.
I'd say the only criticism is there wasn't enough of it. The pacing was pretty breakneck especially in the last 2 episodes. Also the lack of infected in a lot of episodes. [Reply]
