The much-anticipated live-actionseries adaptation of the critically acclaimed game,The Last of Usnow has a director for its pilot episode.
The Last of UsTV series was announced this past March to be in production at HBO, with one of the game’s original creative directors, Neil Druckmann (the other being Bruce Straley,who left developer Naughty Dogafter a long sabbatical a few years ago). Druckmann is also developing the show with the creator of last year’s critically acclaimed HBO miniseriesChernobyl,Craig Mazin. The series will also have the game’s composer, Gustavo Santaolalla, returning as well. This news came a few years after a film adaptation directed by Sam Raimi went into production hell in 2016. This new series will also be the first production of Sony’s new studio, PlayStation Productions, which will be working alongside Sony Pictures Television on the project.
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In an interview with Discussing Film, director Johan Renck revealed that he will be directing “at least the pilot” ofThe Last of Usfor HBO. Renck worked closely with Craig Mazin on developingthe often celebratedChernobyland directed all of the miniseries’ episodes. He also confirmed that he is an executive producer. When asked how he was approaching development of the characters, Renck said that he has been having weekly calls with Craig Mazin and Neil Druckman about how best to handle adapting a character that fans of the game are all intimately familiar with, calling it “a very different story” than adapting an unknown historical figure fromChernobylor a character from a book.
There is currently no expected window on whenThe Last of Uswill premiere on HBO, but surely production will pick up afterThe Last of Us2 releases later this month. It is unknown if the TV series will adapt any story material fromThe Last of Us 2.
Along with other recent news like confirmation thatThe Last of Us 2will run on PS5 and that the AI will be more intelligent and all have unique names, it was also confirmed that the game will be incredibly accessible,sporting features like re-mappable controlsand multiple vision aids.
The Last of Us Part 2launches June 19 on PS4.
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