The two-hour movie adaptation of The Last of Us, which is being written by the game’s creative director Neil Druckmann, will be different to the game itself.
“In two hours you can’t tell the same kind of story that you can in a game like The Last of Us, which is 15 hours,” said Druckmann, speaking to MCV. “I’m in the middle of it now, and it’s been super difficult because there’s so much that happens in The Last of Us – even just in the cinematics – that can’t fit in a film, let alone all the gameplay in-between and dialogue.”
Presumably then, you won’t see Joel fumble with a Molotov cocktail and accidentally throw it at his feet, causing him to run away and hide while on fire. You won’t see tense moments where you accidentally press the D-pad twice and fire a gun instead of an arrow, alerting all nearby Clickers. Joel won’t die midway through the movie only to be born again with no explanation at the start of the area.
“A film works really well when it’s laser-focused, so the first part of it was like: well, what is this story really about? It’s clearly about Joel and Ellie. What are the most important beats that we can’t lose? Start with those, and cut everything else out.” continued Druckmann. He’s not suggesting that the film will be Joel and Ellie floating in endless space, I hope, so there will still be some similarities to the game.
“Some parts will be similar to the game and some parts will be quite different, but it’s kind of interesting in helping me understand this other medium and its strengths compared to video games.” We can assume that the parts that will be similar will be non-interactive cutscenes, and the parts which will be quite different will be the gameplay sections which employ player choice. It’s unlikely that you’ll see Joel walk down the wrong corridor only to instead find a nice necklace or comic book to keep, unfortunately.
Druckmann also took some time to discuss how games are generally different from movies:
“Fatal Frame 2 is the scariest kind of experience in any medium; I haven’t seen a movie that comes close to the fear I feel when I play that game. Ico has me connecting to another character in a way that no book ever has. Likewise, a lot of games can make you feel guilt, make you take actions that you don’t necessarily want to take, but you have to in order to proceed, and that’s something a film can never do.
“Different mediums have different strengths, and games just have this bad perception that they’re slowly overcoming. One of the kind of things I’m trying to do is promote the idea that games are this compelling narrative form, just as strong as any of these other mediums.”
Source: MCV
Cerberus64
Different FROM, Similar TO
Cerberus64
Damn – it stopped out my ‘pedant’, ‘/pedant’ fake HTML code round that post!
bunimomike
Druckmann mentions Ico. Good lord. This man is on my “people to respect in the games industry list” and then some! Top bloke.
He’s also spot on about how he’s approaching this. Don’t tamper with the essence but make it fit the film world when the need arises. Lovely stuff.
Tuffcub
He was at the launch of TLoU when me and Tef went. He looks like Tefs twin.
bunimomike
Just the beard (or lack thereof) to distinguish them apart. :D
leeroye
Not really sure the game needs to be made into a film really.
JustTaylorNow
Copy & paste ‘I AM LEGEND’ & a scene from dawn of the apes then add Joel & Ellie & there you have it.
Severn2j
I’m not sure if you really like I Am Legend or really don’t like The Last of Us…
JustTaylorNow
I like both of them?
JR.
I thought I Am Legend was great apart from possibly THE worst looking CGI monsters in a film, ever.
Watching The Mummy (1999) and I Am Legend (2007) you’d think their release dates were the wrong way round.
Other than that it’s a brill movie.
double-o-dave
If I remember correctly, one of the scenes towards the end of World War Z when they’re in a hospital (i think) reminds me of TLOU. There was a zombie similar to a runner or clicker doing the same movements and making similar noises who Brad Pitt has to sneak past. I keep thinking either the film or game must of copied each other.
JR.
Well WWZ had nothing to do with the book it was based on so it’s safe to assume that they found inspiration elsewhere. Loved that scene though.