Over the course of the past few years, Naughty Dog has established a reputation for being one of the best video game development companies on the market by making games that have a unique cinematic feel to them. Therefore, many fans have been champing at the bit for Hollywood adaptations of two of the company’s more popular games: Uncharted and The Last of Us.
While an Uncharted movie is coming along quite nicely over at Sony, with Shawn Levy attached to direct and Joe Carnahan penning the screenplay, a Last of Us movie is a bit of a different story. Sam Raimi signed on to produce the feature for Screen Gems in 2014, along with Naughty Dog developers Evan Wells, Christophe Balestra, Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann, but updates on the project have been scarce ever since.
Recently, however, while speaking with IGN to promote the home video release of sleeper hit Don’t Breathe, which he produced, Raimi was asked about the project. He said, “With this one [Neil Druckmann] went to Sony — who I have a very good relationship with — but they have their own plans for it and I think Neil’s plan for it — I’m not trying to be political — Neil’s plan for it is not the same as Sony’s. And because my company [Ghost House Pictures] doesn’t have the rights, I actually can’t help him too much. Even though I’m one of the producers on it the way he set it up, he sold his rights to Sony, Sony hired me as a producer by chance, and I can’t get the rights free for him so I’m not in the driver’s seat and I can’t tell you what Sony and Neil together will decide on. If they do move forward I’d love to help them again.”
When questioned about his involvement with the film, Raimi said, “Yes, I’m attached to it. I’m not too sure what that means. Right now it’s just sitting there. They don’t want to move forward, and it’s not my place to say why, and Neil, I think, is in a slight disagreement with them about how things should go so there’s a standstill. And I don’t have the power to move it.”
Many have hailed The Last of Us as one of the greatest video games ever made, so adapting it for the silver screen will be no easy feat. Time will tell if the project eventually is abandoned or starts moving forward by hiring a director and cast, but as of now, things aren’t looking too good for the adaptation.
Originally published November 16, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
