HBO is working on a television adaptation of famed video game The Last of Us. The horror/survival title, a popular Sony exclusive, was released for the PlayStation 3 in 2013 (remastered for PS4 a year later) and has gamers play as smuggler Joel, whose mission is to transport teenager and potential cure for a deadly pandemic Ellie across a post-apocalyptic version of the U.S. The Last of Us sold 1.3 million copies in its first week and was 2013's biggest game launch at the time of its release. As of 2018, it had sold over 17 million units across both the PS3 and PS4.
Developer Naughty Dog is poised to release The Last of Us Part II on May 29, after pushing the release date back from February 21. The new game will bring back Joel and Ellie, as well as other familiar characters. The second installment is set five years after the first, with the aforementioned pair having taken up residence among other survivors in Jackson, Wyoming, prior to a violent disturbance that prompts Ellie to set off on a new journey. The title went into development in 2014, right after the remastered version of the first game was released. Bruce Straley, who directed the initial creation, left Naughty Dog in 2017 and will have no involvement in the series; despite The Last of Us Part II going into development in 2014, he is believed to have had no part in it either.
According to THR, writer and producer of the highly rated HBO miniseries Chernobyl, Craig Mazin, is teaming up with HBO again to adapt The Last of Us as a TV series, a co-production between Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation Productions. Mazin is joined as writer and executive producer on the video game adaptation by Neil Druckmann, who worked as the writer and creative director for the first game. Naughty Dog president Evan Wells and Carolyn Strauss, former president of HBO's entertainment division and the executive producer for series such as Game of Thrones and Luck, will also executive produce what will be PlayStation Productions' first TV series.
Druckmann confirmed the show will be centered on characters Joel and Ellie in a tweet on Thursday. He also claimed to be excited about getting to work with Mazin, who he says is one of his favorite writers, although he was previously against an adaptation of The Last of Us. Mazin, in turn, rated Druckmann as the "finest storyteller working in the video game medium." The Chernobyl producer is reported to be an avid player of The Last of Us and he's revealed having dreamed about working on an adaptation of the game for years. He said:
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.
Judging from the response to the social media announcements as it relates to the inbound TV series, fans are quite pleased with the development - although, given the remarkable success of The Last of Us (which won multiple "Game of the Year" awards) there was hardly any doubt an adaptation would be well received. That both Druckmann and Mazin will be responsible for bringing the story to life should also be taken as great news since both these men have led amazing careers behind the scenes of some of the entertainment industry's most popular productions. Fans will learn more about The Last of Us TV show as development continues.
Source: THR