HBO's The Last of Us TV series adds Chernobyl director Johan Renck

[Shawn Knight]

Recap: The Last of Us dropped on PlayStation 3 in mid-2013 to critical acclaim. The action-adventure game, played via third-person perspective, has been described as a “brutal, heartbreaking journey” of survival for its two main characters. It arrived on the PlayStation 4 the following summer and is arguably one of the best games in Sony’s stable of exclusives.

HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us will serve as a reunion of sorts for Chernobyl alumni. Johan Renck, who directed the five-episode miniseries about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986, has reportedly been brought on to direct the pilot episode of The Last of Us.

Back in early March, HBO confirmed that Craig Mazin would be co-writing the series along with Neil Druckman who wrote the story for the first game and served as co-writer on the second project. Mazin, if you recall, created the Chernobyl miniseries which won numerous awards including two Golden Globes and a handful of Emmy Awards.

In a perfect world, the long-rumored sequel would already be in the hands of gamers but things rarely go according to plan. In April, developer Naughty Dog announced it was delaying the game due to logistics beyond its control (likely Covid-19). Worse yet, leaked footage from the game hit the Internet a few weeks later that reportedly highlighted some major spoilers.

The Last of Us II is now scheduled to launch on PlayStation 4 on June 19, 2020.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/85547-hbo-last-us-tv-series-adds-chernobyl-director.html

 

[kira setsu]

What a cake job to get, the game was already a wannabe movie by itself, probably one of the easiest things to adapt to film I've seen.

 

[HotToz]

They should work in port that game to PC. Only PS gamerz know about that game also I have some extra money itching in my pocket with that name

 

[Julio Franco]

HBO's Chernobyl was pretty great, so now I'm looking forward to this one.

 

[Capaill]

Very cool. As a PC gamer this might be my only way to experience the TLOU story.

 

[3volv3d]

What a cake job to get, the game was already a wannabe movie by itself, probably one of the easiest things to adapt to film I've seen.

No a cake job is selling Range Rovers, cause every wannabe wants one. How many games to film adaptions have actually worked ?
I honestly can't think of one. Tomb Raiders were meh. Watchable but meh. Hours of my life I ain't getting back.
And 99 of films turned games have been made with no thought. I really don't wanna hold my breath, sure I hope this is good, cause the game itself was quite captivating.

 

[Capaill]

No a cake job is selling Range Rovers, cause every wannabe wants one. How many games to film adaptions have actually worked ?
I honestly can't think of one. Tomb Raiders were meh. Watchable but meh. Hours of my life I ain't getting back.
And 99 of films turned games have been made with no thought. I really don't wanna hold my breath, sure I hope this is good, cause the game itself was quite captivating.

Well, it's a TV series.
And, The Witcher.
If it's at least as good as that, we have a winner.

 

[Julio Franco]

And, The Witcher.
If it's at least as good as that, we have a winner.

No doubt The Witcher raised the bar.

 

[kira setsu]

No a cake job is selling Range Rovers, cause every wannabe wants one. How many games to film adaptions have actually worked ?
I honestly can't think of one. Tomb Raiders were meh. Watchable but meh. Hours of my life I ain't getting back.
And 99 of films turned games have been made with no thought. I really don't wanna hold my breath, sure I hope this is good, cause the game itself was quite captivating.

the difference is this will be a series, they wont be cramming a whole game into 2hrs, I wasnt a fan of tlou because it came off as a movie that let you play it sometimes, so this happening imo is better than playing the game if it comes out decent

 

[3volv3d]

the difference is this will be a series, they wont be cramming a whole game into 2hrs, I wasnt a fan of tlou because it came off as a movie that let you play it sometimes, so this happening imo is better than playing the game if it comes out decent

I don't know what you played, it had lots of gameplay, but yes it was like playing in a story / movie which is what a game should allow you to feel, immersive so you feel for the characters.
Again though, gameplay like uncharted, did you not like uncharted. Maybe you played Until Dawn, that was a movie with options, and not that great.

 

[Bp968]

What a cake job to get, the game was already a wannabe movie by itself, probably one of the easiest things to adapt to film I've seen.

Which means they will need to put their own flair and artistry to it, which means they will screw it up.. thats how these things work!

 

[Bp968]

I don't know what you played, it had lots of gameplay, but yes it was like playing in a story / movie which is what a game should allow you to feel, immersive so you feel for the characters.
Again though, gameplay like uncharted, did you not like uncharted. Maybe you played Until Dawn, that was a movie with options, and not that great.

I know what he means, but its just that style of game. I tend to prefer a game that is more open ended but its hard to tell a story that way. TLOU and the uncharted games tend to be like a movie that your the stunt guy/gal for. You get to play the action scenes and the puzzle scenes but have to watch all the "real" actors do the major scenes.

I thought CD Projekt Red did a great job handling the witcher 3 being open ended. You had multiple "acts" with side quests that effected the minor story threads and might cause a character or characters to react a little differently for one scene or for them to refer to it later in the game, but it didn't effect the overall major story plots.

So at the end of the game they only needed to voice/shoot 3 or so different endings, and they only varied slightly. It would be fairly easy to do something similar with a strong narrative game like TLOU but just limit it to a single ending (so while you can effect change along the way in minor side missions, you can't change the outcome at the end so they can easily make a sequel without worrying about different plot lines or dead characters coming back to life).

 

[Ryan Barrett]

If they try and pull the same **** where they use any actor regardless of their accent, I'm going to be pissed. I want a proper Texas drawl on Joel or GTFO. Also, who would you cast as Joel? I'm thinking Josh Brolin is the easy pick if he'd actually be willing to do TV. And he's already played a character from Texas.