Why The Last Of Us Movie Hasn't Happened Yet (& Why That's Good)

Sande Ağustos 11, 2021

http://bit.ly/2Gf6997

The Last of Us movie was announced several years ago, but it still hasn't released; it hasn't even entered production yet - so what's happening? After spending the bulk of the PlayStation 3 lifecycle releasing Uncharted games as well as the Jak and Dexter collection, Naughty Dog surprised everyone with the release of The Last of Us in 2013 - a post-apocalyptic survival horror game with action-adventure elements.

Naughty Dog didn't just create one of the most beloved games of the last console generation but they also set the stage for what single-player titles would have to compete against for several years. The Last of Us was an enormous critical and commercial success, and its story, which centered on the characters Joel and Ellie, captivated players around the world. So it's no wonder Sony Pictures wanted to adapt The Last of Us into a movie.

In March 2014, just a few months after The Last of Us released on the PS3, Sony announced that Screen Gems, a division of Sony Pictures, was working on a movie adaptation of The Last of Us, which would be written by game director and Naughty Dog VP Neil Druckmann and produced by iconic filmmaker Sam Raimi. That was almost five years ago, and The Last of Us movie is nowhere near being able to start production. So what happened?

This Page: Naughty Dog Didn't Like The Story & Is Busy With Last Of Us 2
Page 2: The Uncharted Movie & Could Last Of Us Still Happen?

Single player and story-focused games like The Last of Us require compelling and emotional narratives in order to keep players engaged - and Druckmann is certainly an experienced writer who not only could bring The Last of Us' story to life once but twice. Since The Last of Us' story is told in a cinematic fashion, as has become the norm in the video game industry, a movie version of the game would need to be a direct adaptation. So that's what Druckmann did; the script he wrote for The Last of Us movie was a direct adaptation of the game, but it wasn't what he wanted in the end.

Speaking with 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg during a panel at DICE Summit 2018, Druckmann admitted that he didn't want the script he wrote for The Last of Us movie to be used. He had said: "...And even I worked on the script for The Last of Us film, which was a direct adaptation. And now, having some separation from it, I look back and [am] like, 'I don't want that movie to be made.'" Based on his comments, it certainly seems like Druckmann finished The Last of Us movie script quite some time ago but simply didn't want to see it turned into a movie, so it was never utilized.

Two years after The Last of Us movie was announced, Druckmann was asked about the adaptation while promoting Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. This update came more than a year after Druckmann had already completed the second draft for The Last of Us' script and performed read-throughs with some actors. It seems sometime after those read-throughs, everyone involved with the movie wasn't completely satisfied with the script, so the adaptation fell into development hell. What's more, Druckmann and Screen Gems had little reason to fix the script's issues since Naughty Dog was busy working on The Last of Us 2.

Later that year, Sony PlayStation officially announced that The Last of Us 2 was in development, which means Naughty Dog and Druckmann's focus was entirely on developing the sequel to their hit game. Given the scale and ambition surrounding The Last of Us 2, especially the gameplay demo that was shown at E3 2018, it certainly looks like development on the sequel has taken the bulk of the studio's time. And with Druckmann acting as game director once again, there's no way he, or anyone else associated with Naughty Dog, would have the time to rewrite The Last of Us' script.

Page 2 of 2: The Uncharted Movie & Could Last Of Us Still Happen?

It's not like Sony Pictures and Screen Gems are just sitting idly by until The Last of Us 2 releases, they are actually hard at work on adapting Uncharted - yet another Naughty Dog series. Several years before Sony announced plans to make The Last of Us movie, they had already gone through an arduous process trying to make an Uncharted movie. It began in the late 2000s with producer Avi Arad trying to get an Uncharted adaptation off the ground, which came shortly after the first Uncharted game released on the PS3. But multiple rounds of writers and directors signing on and exiting the Uncharted movie over the course of almost a decade forced the movie to be completely retooled.

Smokin' Aces and The Grey writer and director Joe Carnahan was the latest person to take a run at the Uncharted script in 2016 and turned in his draft in early 2017. But even though Sony had a script and a director attached - Shawn Levy, who's known for directing the Night at the Museum movies as well as producing the Stranger Things series - the studio ultimately decided to toss everything they had aside and go for an Uncharted origin story instead, with current Spider-Man actor Tom Holland starring in the lead role as a young Nathan Drake. While an Uncharted origin movie isn't necessarily a great idea, especially since fans of the game have wanted to see an adult Nathan Drake on the big screen for over 10 years, it's something Sony is very much committed to making.

Trachtenberg, who interviewed Druckmann at DICE not too long ago, recently signed on to direct Uncharted (after Levy stepped down), which will be based on a script from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. writer and producer Rafe Judkins, who agreed to write yet another version of the Uncharted screenplay in 2018. With everything once again moving in the right direction, it seems Sony's commitment to adapting at least one Naughty Dog game into a movie will finally come to fruition. Whether it'll good or not, though, remains to be seen.

At this point, it doesn't seem like The Last of Us movie will happen anytime soon. Naughty Dog is at the tail-end of developing The Last of Us 2, so nothing will happen on the story side until that game is out on store shelves. Of course, if Druckmann wants to leave the story in someone else's hands, then it's certainly possible that the studio could find another writer to pen the script and get the ball rolling on a movie adaptation. But then again, even Sony is busy with the Uncharted movie as well as reviving franchises to keep themselves afloat as one of Hollywood's big players.

Given how long Uncharted has been in development, there's reason to hope that The Last of Us movie may eventually see the light of day. But since Druckmann disagreed with Sony on The Last of Us story in 2016, it would make sense for Sony to do what they did with the Uncharted movie and make an original story, one that's separate from the core games. Whether that means entirely new characters set in the same post-apocalyptic world, or a hybrid adaptation of The Last of Us and The Last of Us 2, is unclear, but either scenario would work. While the first option may not be the Last of Us movie that fans want, it could still have some inkling of what made The Last of Us great in the first place.