A feature film adaptation of Naughty Dog’s survival-horror game The Last of Us has been talked about pretty much since the game came out back in 2013, with Screen Gems announcing that they were developing one less than a year after the cinematic game was released. At one point, Sam Raimi was even attached to the project as producer.
But we haven’t heard much about the planned adaptation in recent years. For the best, says Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, who co-directed the video game. Druckmann himself had worked on the script for the Screen Gems project; reflecting on the project years later, however, he now hopes that the script never makes it to the screen.
Druckmann explained why at DICE Summit 2018, via Screen Daily.
“Even I worked on the script for The Last of Us film, which was a direct adaptation,” Druckmann explained. “And now, having some separation from it, I look back and [am] like, ‘I don’t want that movie to be made.’”
He continued, “Maybe there’s something that could be done in the world, either focusing on other characters or other time. But, for me, and I know for Naughty Dog and for a lot of our fans… Ashley Johnson is Ellie, Troy Baker is Joel. And it would be very disorienting to see someone else in [those roles].”
So it sounds like if Druckmann has his way, The Last of Us will get its own movie, though not one that’s a direct adaptation of the game… as originally planned.
