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“Chernobyl” Director Helming “Last of Us” TV Show

bitbydeath

Member
I’m glad they’re adapting the story as opposed to making up their own crap.

Specifically Johan Renck, who helmed and executive produced the entire five-episode run of “Chernobyl,” has become attached.
However as the project is an ongoing series rather than a limited one, he won’t direct the whole thing but will helm at least the pilot if not another episode or two after that. Of the challenge of adapting the celebrated game, Renck says one major difficulty is that Troy Baker did such a good portrayal of Joel that it’s difficult to find someone for this version because of the inevitable comparisons that will be made:
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.
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.
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.”
The game’s developer Naughty Dog and its director Neil Druckmann is heavily involved in the making of the series which will start off adapting the first game’s story.
 
I’m glad he’s at least directing the pilot. Seems to have a solid resume.



Pilot episode has its director

This past March, HBO confirmed that it's teaming up with Naughty Dog to make a Last of Us TV show - which will replace the long-planned film adaptation.


Creator of HBO's Chernobyl (and writer of the upcoming Borderlands movie, directed by Eli Roth and starring Cate Blanchett), Craig Mazin, is executive producing and writing the series alongside Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann and recently, in an interview with Discussing Film, Johan Renck, who won an Emmy for directing all five episode of Chernobyl, confirmed he is on board to executive produce The Last of Us and direct "at least" the pilot episode.

Renck has also directed episode of Breaking Bad, Vikings, The Walking Dead, and Bates Motel.
 
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xrnzaaas

Gold Member
i hope it doesn't bombard us with interracial lesbian themes

is jamie lannister still playing joel?
Lesbian themes are okay if the lesbians are hot. ;) But if they're going to take the same route as in the games you can expect a bunch of ugly female characters. Young Ellie from TLoU1 was pretty much the only cute one.
 
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Mr Hyde

Member
Haven't seen Chernobyl yet but Stakka Bo is an interesting choice as director, he has a keen eye for visual design, so he would most likely handle the gritty world building with ease.

Craig Mazin on the other hand is a hack. His resume as a writer is Scary Movie, Hangover 2 and 3 and Senseless. As a director, he did that awful spoof Superhero Movie. Chernobyl seems to be the only worthwhile credit. He also seems stupid.

Sad to see Cory engage in Twitter banter like that, he should follow his own example and not be stupid. Get off social media Cory, you're better than that.
 

Devilich

Member
The only good thing Craig Mazin ever worked on was Chernobyl, and that was a book adaptation. A book that he had to heavily rely upon while writing. Everything else in his 23 years long career he wrote for isn't noteworthy or is questionable.
Even though I loved Chernobyl I remain skeptic until that dude proves that he can write for good and isn't just a one-hit wonder.
 

MoreJRPG

Suffers from extreme PDS
Another horrible video game adaption incoming. If it was a movie I’d have a lot more faith than trying to get 10+ hours of script out of it. Especially for something as basic and straight forward as The Last of Us. Zombie genre is already beaten to death, this one feels six years too late.
 
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sobaka770

Banned
I actually am glad that they are trying TV series out of it instead of a movie. Videogame movies don't have time to establish characters and try to only capture the "action" parts which makes them shallow,
We already had "The Road" movie which is kind of same-ish, but I think if they can approach it from a more character-driven realistic POV it could be something special.

Theycan really expand on Joel and Ellie's journey and with HBO behind it, at least we can be assured it's going to get proper vetting unlike Netflix,
 

REE Machine

Banned
Another horrible video game adaption incoming. If it was a movie I’d have a lot more faith than trying to get 10+ hours of script out of it. Especially for something as basic and straight forward as The Last of Us. Zombie genre is already beaten to death, this one feels six years too late.
The fact it has the Chernobyl guy and is a series I think makes it more realistic to succeed. You have way more time to focus on the world, its characters, give those important quite moments etc. Reason why i think video game movies fail is because 1 a movie only has 2-3 hours to work with to establish anything and 2 its because it always fell into the hand of incompetent people and directors, but Chernobyl was one of the hottest shows recently that showed the horrific events of a very fucked up situation
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
Chernobyl... excellent series with an ugly wart: they removed dozens and dozens of historical scientists (both men and women) to cast a fictional woman named Khomyuk in the central role of Mary Sue finger-wagger.

So yeah, this seems like an excellent fit considering TLOU's ideological themes.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
There's a stronger hot take to be had here but I think they'll respect the game's lore no one really gets video games but making them into shows or movies is what's happening.
 

mckmas8808

Banned
I had a run-in with that Craig Mazin guy a while ago on Twitter.














... :messenger_expressionless:


I COMPLETELY agree with Cory and Craig in that Twitter thread of you guys. They had EXCELLENT points! Yes, the economy matters, but not if we are millions of people die and 100 million got the virus. 45 screwed up big time! Luckily this country has enough leaders in Governors positions to do the "right" thing for the most part.
 
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GymWolf

Member
Chernobyl was fantastic, i have high hopes for the make up of the infected after what i saw in that serial.

Just keep drunkman away and let the chernobyl guy doing plot\writing please.
 
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OK, now i am interested.

Chernobyl sent shivers down my spine wen i first watched it, and it easily became one of my favorite shows ever. Allthough dramatized a bit and fictional in some aspects (Khomyuk), it's a respectable portrayal of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, and i am appreciative that this show exists at all.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
I COMPLETELY agree with Cory and Craig in that Twitter thread of you guys. They had EXCELLENT points! Yes, the economy matters, but not if we are millions of people die and 100 million got the virus. 45 screwed up big time! Luckily this country and enough leaders in Governor positions to do the "right" thing for the most part.

That’s not the point at all.
 

Bryank75

Banned
I had a run-in with that Craig Mazin guy a while ago on Twitter.














... :messenger_expressionless:

Sad to see Cory and these other creatives basically making sweeping statements, calling everyone who voted Trump stupid... as if the alternative was better in any way.

Hillary left guys like Ronin (The guy on the front of this seasons COD MW) to die protecting a consulate in a highly compromised location, she has a shady history going all the way back to Whitewater.

If they looked at the locations that were hit hardest by the virus, it is by far the liberal / democrat run that were the worst.
This is mirrored in Europe by the eastern European block that are mostly conservative and go against open borders... where they mostly contained the virus quite well and had minimal fatalities and spreading was stalled easily.

They have such hate for their fellow countrymen just based on political affiliation... it's sick.
 
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Bryank75

Banned
Sony promises the gameplay will remain unchanged from the games to the TV series.



w0LEbJi.gif
 
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bitbydeath

Member
If they struggle so much about lead actor why not use actor who actually played in movie which The Last of Us ripped from about everything.

The road:



I watched that movie. I didn’t see much in common other than it featuring a bearded guy and child.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Videogame movie/series adaptations still don't sit well with me.
In the first place, TLoU success had a lot to do with how it blurred the lines between cinema and videogames. If we just take the content of the story itself however, there really isn't much in it that would stand out from other series/movies with similar premises.
 
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Dontero

Banned
I watched that movie. I didn’t see much in common other than it featuring a bearded guy and child.

You mean beside featuring Joel lookalike being set in post apocaliptic world where main lead tries to survive with his son and want to go to to other side of US because of reason while they have to fight with other survivors ?

There is absolutely nothing in common. Nothing i say.
 

bitbydeath

Member
You mean beside featuring Joel lookalike being set in post apocaliptic world where main lead tries to survive with his son and want to go to to other side of US because of reason while they have to fight with other survivors ?

There is absolutely nothing in common. Nothing i say.

No zombie-like creatures, no story about a cure or anything. Stephen Kings The Stand is probably more like TLOU than The Road TBH since it’s a virus that impacts the human condition and they fight with one another too.
 

Dontero

Banned
No zombie-like creatures, no story about a cure or anything. Stephen Kings The Stand is probably more like TLOU than The Road TBH since it’s a virus that impacts the human condition and they fight with one another too.

Yeah because if they would just straight up copy it they would have to pay license or pay damages.
 

Ballthyrm

Member
Can't we stop giving sole credit to any individual for big projects.
That's how you get mislead and then deluded when "they" don't deliver.

This show has been stuck in development hell for a while like Uncharted if I remember correctly.

My take is that naughty dog is a pain to work with, not a surprise considering that they seem to want to make movies more than video games.


PS: we have The Road already, I'll be very surprised if it is as good as it.
 

Reficul

Member
Haven't seen Chernobyl yet but Stakka Bo is an interesting choice as director, he has a keen eye for visual design, so he would most likely handle the gritty world building with ease.
Johan Renck == Stakka Bo....
cYDx2QN.gif

Mind blown...
Stakka Bo helmed the Chernobyl TV series???

Z6KvcCb.gif

Mind even more blown...
Stakka Bo directing The Last Of Us???

Tv15uuh.gif
 
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