Some people once said that there
is a curse lying in the adaptation of videogames to audiovisual media,
particularly Hollywood movies. But for every naysayer from at least the 1990s
who would point out the examples of “Super Mario Bros.” (1993) or the videogame
films directed by Uwe Boll, there are those who would counter with “Mortal
Kombat” (1995) and “Tomb Raider” (2001 and the 2018 reboot). Lately however,
some observers would opine that the movie videogame curse has ended, at least with
last years “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu” and the newly-released “Sonic the
Hedgehog.” Now, American-produced game adaptation is headed to the small screen
too.
The Hollywood Reporter has it that HBO is taking a shot at adapting
a videogame, not as a single-showing movie but as a regular series. The
announcement was made by the network Thursday, March 5, that they are adapting
the third-person survival horror title “The Last of Us,” developed by Naughty Dog
and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 (2013) and 4
(2014). To realize this project, HBO has tapped to be its producer Craig Mazin,
who recently wrote and produced the HBO-Sky UK historical drama “Chernobyl,”
which won Best Miniseries at the 77th Golden Globe Awards.
Seeing as the game publisher Sony
has a TV production division of its own, the proposed “Last of Us” series will
be co-produced for HBO by Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation Productions.
The latter is a newly-minted film-TV studio under Sony Interactive
Entertainment that is geared to adapting Sony-PlayStation videogames, with this
being its first series. With that arrangement, “The Last of Us” creative director
and game storywriter Neil Druckmann is joining the production posse as
executive producer with Naughty Dog president Evan Wells and Carolyn Strauss, the
EP for “Chernobyl” and “Game of Thrones.”
Fans of “The Walking Dead” will
be right at home with “The Last of Us,” which takes place primarily in a world
broken by a mutated fungi infection that turns infected humans into animalistic
cannibals. The central characters are Joel, a man who has lost his immediate
family with only a brother as his last surviving relative, and Ellie, a young
girl who somehow is immune to the bites of the Infected and is being escorted
by Joel in the hope that her unique ability can be used to make a cure for the
20-year long infection in the world.
No further details about “The
Last of Us” series on HBO has been given, though it is highly likely that the
show will adapt and possibly expand the events of the first season. By the time
its finale airs the sequel “Last of Us Part II” will have arrived for the PS4
in May, allowing for a follow-up if successful.
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