The release of Naughty Dog's THE LAST OF US PART II is just around the corner, but that's not the only LAST OF US media that is on its way. We've reported before about how HBO is producing a TV series based on the videogame franchise, and that it is being developed by CHERNOBYL's Craig Mazin and Johan Renck. Renck, who directed all five episodes of the critically-acclaimed miniseries, is also said to be directing "at least" the pilot episode.
Here's what he said about the project, in an interview with Discussing Film:
I’m an executive producer on it and attached to it. It’s an ongoing TV series. So that’s not something that I will be able to take on to that extent, but I’m part of that series and I will be directing at least the pilot. Then we’ll see how it goes on further. I mean, both Craig and I, we are working with each other again and we will work with each other on other things because we like each other.
Renck went onto talk about the struggles of adapting a videogame as opposed to most other adaptations (real or fictional):
The Last of Us with Craig, in which you have a video game character who’s very much top of mind with anybody who’s ever played that game. More than that, they know exactly what he looks like, how he talks, how he acts, and so on and so forth. Another project that I’m in development with is based on the book The Magus by John Fowles and this is another sort of limited series. There you have a fictional character that everybody who has read the book will have their own impressionist idea on how he moves, behaves, looks, and all of that. On the other hand, he’s only ever been represented on pages in a book – meaning that there is no right or wrong. Except for an idea of who he is because it becomes more impressionist again.
So with the The Last of Us, this is something that we’re discussing. We’re having weekly calls, Craig and I and also Neil [Druckmann] who created the game, about various approaches and how to deal with that. How to deal with the fact that a video game character is way further than a character from a book. But also it’s more different to deal with than a real person. For instance, Valery Legasov from Chernobyl because nobody had ever seen or heard of him, it wasn’t pivotal to honor anything of that. I’m being brief because of course we wanted to portray him as true to reality as we could. On the other hand, there were no preconceived ideas of it. With something like The Last of Us, it’s going to be a very different story. This is something that we spent a lot of time talking about here and in the early development stages of this process. There are a lot of things to take into consideration and a lot of decisions and choices to be made in various ways without saying anything more about it.
Obviously, no official release or start date for the HBO show at this time, but THE LAST OF US PART II will be coming to PS4 June 19th.
So what do you guys think? Any fans of the THE LAST OF US game? If so, how do you feel about the upcoming HBO show? Either way, sound off below!