Support NeoGAF

[Represent.]

Oscar nominee Jasmila Žbanić (Quo vadis, Aida) and Ali Abbasi (Border) have been added as directors on The Last of Us, HBO’s high-profile series adaptation of the Sony Playstation franchise from Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.

Based on the critically acclaimed video game The Last of Us, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, the story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel (Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie (Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.


Kantemir Balagov is directing the pilot episode of The Last Of Us, a co-production with Sony Pictures Television. PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint, and Naughty Dog produce the TV series, based on the video game developed by Naughty Dog exclusively for the PlayStation platforms.

Druckmann and Mazin write and executive produce; Carolyn Strauss also executive produces along with Naughty Dog president Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan of PlayStation Productions as well as Rose Lam.

‘The Last Of Us’: Jasmila Žbanić & Ali Abbasi To Direct HBO Series Based On Video Game

Jasmila Žbanić and Ali Abbasi have been added as directors on The Last of Us, HBO’s series adaptation of the Sony Playstation franchise.

deadline.com

TONS of talent going into this show.
They might fuck around and drop the best horror-drama-action fusion show of all time

Hope it goes past TLOU 2 story, ends on a cliffhanger, and we play out the conclusion in TLOU 3.
GOAT shit.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Sounds like they are really putting together a stellar cast and team behind it. I REALLY hope they knock it out of the park. I have my big qualms with the direction of TLOU2, but I absolutely love the universe and setting/tone. I can't wait to see some of the situations they can come up with Clickers.

 

[ethomaz]

If there is a franchise that can works fantastic in a high budget series is TLOU.

 

[Represent.]

Walking Dead has been a guilty pleasure and holds a special place in my heart, been watching that shit from Day 1.

But its ending at the perfect time.

 

[theHFIC]

Has there ever been an IP that managed to be both Game and Television Show of the Generation?

 

[SlimySnake]

Never heard of these people.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Wish they'd just continue this IP in film format only. Then maybe ND could make a real videogame for once instead of an interactive film. Played through all of TLOU2 recently and wasn't impressed, coming from DeS right before that.

 

[Punished Miku]

I'd rather HBO just make a big budget zombie show. I never felt the story of TLOU was that compelling. The further they deviate away from the game, the more I'll be interested.

 

[ANDS]

Pascal I can sorta see. Bella is a great get though. They both have the genre chops though so that should be good for the niche fans.

. . .they better not give Pascal a white daughter though or non-South American brother. That would be silly.

I'd rather HBO just make a big budget zombie show. I never felt the story of TLOU was that compelling. The further they deviate away from the game, the more I'll be interested.

I mean, "zombies" really isn't "the point. . ." of TLOU - in my opinion of course.

 

[MadPanda]

Ok, Jasmina Žbanić is from my country so I'm kinda proud to be honest We don't get such recognition often.

I'm mildly interested in the show so let's see how this works out.

 

[Punished Miku]

I mean, "zombies" really isn't "the point. . ." of TLOU - in my opinion of course.

A good backdrop for post-apocalyptic human drama, pretty much like The Walking Dead. It's not the point, but it's a good background set up for action and survival drama.

 

[Mr Hyde]

I saw Ali Abbasis Border when it showed on cinema a couple of years ago. Great stuff. Hopefully he and that other director can do The Last of Us justice.

 

[HTK]

I'm not sure about the other director but Jasmina Žbanić (Quo vadis, Aida) is really good, but I'm a bit biased since she's from my neck of the woods. My interest in this just went up 1000% from zero. I'm excited.

 

[Ellery]

It is so damn great that we get TLOU turned into a TV show and it looks to be genuine quality content.

I know it is going to take at least another year or two, but I am already excited for it !

 

[Zeroing]

HBO wants to find their next game of thrones... hopefully this time, they know how and when to end the tv show!

 

[Entroyp]

 

[Salty Popsicle]

They should have gotten Frank Durabont to write and direct. He's the guy who made season 1 of The Walking Dead so amazing and the reason no season since then has approached the same level of writing quality.

 

[Great Hair]

I still believe they picked the wrong cast, people. The poor girl looks like a grumpy old woman all the time and the guy who wants to show his face and cant grow a proper mustache ...

Make a CGI movie, tv show with the game assets, characters instead and give the voice-dub-actors the job you dumb, lazy kants! If Squaresoft could do it using shitty single core 233mhz intel machines back in 2001, why cant any company do it now with 128 threads and SLI 3090s?!

Take a Pixar Seminar and make an Uncharted 4 CGI Film ..

 

[Aggelos]

Man this is going to be gangbusters

Jasmila Žbanić - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Ali Abbasi (director) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Golgo 13]

I have no fucking idea who these people are, but if GAF says they're talented that's fantastic. I hope the show is incredible.

 

[mckmas8808]

‘The Last Of Us’: Jasmila Žbanić & Ali Abbasi To Direct HBO Series Based On Video Game

Jasmila Žbanić and Ali Abbasi have been added as directors on The Last of Us, HBO’s series adaptation of the Sony Playstation franchise.

deadline.com

TONS of talent going into this show.
They might fuck around and drop the best horror-drama-action fusion show of all time

Hope it goes past TLOU 2 story, ends on a cliffhanger, and we play out the conclusion in TLOU 3.
GOAT shit.

That would be MCU level AWESOME! Drop 2 seasons of TLOU on HBO and then hit us with a TLOU3 videogame at the end of the PS5 generation!

 

[Astral Dog]

I still believe they picked the wrong cast, people. The poor girl looks like a grumpy old woman all the time and the guy who wants to show his face and cant grow a proper mustache ...

Make a CGI movie, tv show with the game assets, characters instead and give the voice-dub-actors the job you dumb, lazy kants! If Squaresoft could do it using shitty single core 233mhz intel machines back in 2001, why cant any company do it now with 128 threads and SLI 3090s?!

Take a Pixar Seminar and make an Uncharted 4 CGI Film ..

CG show is not gonna sell HBO, they would have gone to Netflix for that (like the upcoming Resident Evil, Dragons Dogma or Castlevania)

Im guessing they want to do it this way because Naughty Dog has the ambition for TLoUs to be the next Walking Dead, not only appeal to fans of the game but every zombie genre afficionado and become a huge hit.

 

[Sander Cohen]

Incredibly proud of my Bosnian countrywoman (even though she lives in Germany now) Jasmila Žbanić. She won Golden Bear in Berlin for “Grbavica” some years ago and is second best favorite for Oscars this year. We’re very small and dysfunctional country but this brings smile on your face. To be frank, it also probably has something to do with her being a woman director, she was doing wonderful stuff way before woman directors were trendy.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Clickers could be fucking terrifying if done right. It’s making my skin crawl thinking of the potential.

 

[Thirty7ven]

Guess there’s at least one videogame adaptation that might actually pull through.

 

[HTK]

GAF has Bosnians who would have thought

 

[CitizenZ]

check mark annnnnddddd check mark

 

[Iced Arcade]

Wonder if they re-face Ellie and Joel in the Tlou1 remake game to the actors of the show.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

I don't know who either of those two people are but here's to hoping for another successful video game adaptation. MK 2021, RE Netflix series....thanks Sonic for lighting the torch back up!

Wonder if they re-face Ellie and Joel in the Tlou1 remake game to the actors of the show.

They don't want a repeat of the fallout (might've just been a vocal minority tho) of the Spiderman remastered stuff when they swapped for Tom Holland's face, so probably not.

 

[Ezquimacore]

my only problem with all these video games adaptations is that I have a better time playing the games.

 

[Iced Arcade]

They don't want a repeat of the fallout (might've just been a vocal minority tho) of the Spiderman remastered stuff when they swapped for Tom Holland's face, so probably not.

they swapped the face but it wasn't Tom Hollands.

 

[mckmas8808]

my only problem with all these video games adaptations is that I have a better time playing the games.

But what if you liked both?

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Don't know these guys, only interested in the final product.

 

[bosnianpie]

I thought I was the only Bosnian here.

Jasmila going for the Oscar.

 

[dEvAnGeL]

This game series fits right with HBO, great start, terrible ending.

 

[HTK]

Don't know these guys, only interested in the final product.

At the end of the day the final product matters the most. I really hope they do a good job.

 

[Komatsu]

Ok, Jasmina Žbanić is from my country so I'm kinda proud to be honest We don't get such recognition often.

I'm mildly interested in the show so let's see how this works out.

Bosnia has some great artists! Quo Vadis, Aida? is a great film.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

they swapped the face but it wasn't Tom Hollands.

That was the intent tho wasn't it xD?

 

[Atrus]

They're going to be filming in and around where I live so there should be plenty of good scenescapes to digitally image into ruinporn. No colonial Boston buildings but plenty of prairies, mountains, forests, and small towns to suit all sorts of places.

I've got high hopes for this show.

 

[TaylorSwiftFan]

I still think it’ll be bad.

 

[Zekra Dezivad]

Pascal I can sorta see. Bella is a great get though. They both have the genre chops though so that should be good for the niche fans.

. . .they better not give Pascal a white daughter though or non-South American brother. That would be silly.



I mean, "zombies" really isn't "the point. . ." of TLOU - in my opinion of course.

Zombie fiction is almost always about people rather that actual zombies.

 

[Ezquimacore]

But what if you liked both?

so far that's not the case, plus we already know the plot so the only thing saving this is the acting.

 

[Represent.]

so far that's not the case, plus we already know the plot so the only thing saving this is the acting.

Its not going to follow the same video game story. Gonna go a different route

 

[mindfreak191]

Ok, Jasmina Žbanić is from my country so I'm kinda proud to be honest We don't get such recognition often.

I'm mildly interested in the show so let's see how this works out.

Samo lagano!

Yup, this is a huge thing, Jasmila is a great director, she certainly knows how to direct tension so I have high hopes for this!

 

[mckmas8808]

so far that's not the case, plus we already know the plot so the only thing saving this is the acting.

This is mostly the plot of the 1st game though. Almost everyone loved it.

 

[SlimySnake]

I have no fucking idea who these people are, but if GAF says they're talented that's fantastic. I hope the show is incredible.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

I dont care what they change. As long as the talent is there. But im gonna have to put the camera work first.

 

[yurinka]

I have no idea who they are. But I assume that if they have been nominated for the Oscars they may be good.

 

[Shmunter]

Looking forward to it. The budget is key here, and significantly higher than the B grade The Witcher no doubt.

Could be huge.

 

[Billbofet]

This fits right in with HBO's dominance in the misery drama genre which they recently took the mantle over from Netflix.
I'll for sure check it out, but HBO - at least lately - is like a library of well-produced sadness.