Jump to content

Last of Us Film Project - Screen Gems, Sam Raimi [Game Spoilers]


Stubby

Recommended Posts

I stopped playing the game because it was boring me; so to me, the movie is not going to be that appealing. But then, in general, I just have a strong antipathy for anything zombie. When I picked up the game I was hoping zombie was just one element of the game and the story, but no, it is THE game. Oh well.

In general I think a movie directly translated from the game is a bad idea, because that experience is already had by the players. A pre-quel or a sequel to the game but keeping the game world in tact and/or using a favorite character makes more sense to me.

Well considering by about halfway through the game you are far more worried about encountering other people and the infected are for the most part quite easily managed I'd say you didn't give the game enough of a chance. Saying the last of us is all about Zombieshrooms is pretty much the same as saying the Walking Dead is all about zombies. Yes, in both cases the zombie(shroom) apocalypse has fundamentally and apparently irreversibly altered human existence. But the story is mostly about the people who aren't dead/shroomified.

Anyway, it's not for everyone and it's totally legit for people to be bored by games that others love.

Back to the movie:

RE Maisie, I have no qualms about their ability to age her down for the movie. Look what they did for Joseph Gordon-Levitt's face in Looper (is that the right movie?). Making a 17-20 year old Maisie Williams look 14 won't be a problem, unless she has a boob job in the intervening years and gives herself a pair of double Ds.

As a fan of the game, I want to see this movie, if it is a good movie. Hell even if it's mediocre I will go see it I imagine. But as a fan of the game I really don't want a movie adaptation that is a PoS. And the history of adaptations is not on my side.

Inherently there is nothing wrong with video game adaptations of the actual story in the game. Indeed as video games start to become more story and character oriented and improve with deeper stories and better characters, it only makes sense to adapt the actual story in a game rather than create a whole new story loosely based on the game world. Given only a few million people have played the game (well maybe 10 million) there is a pretty big movie going audience that hasn't really been exposed to the game. There are enough enthusiastic fans of the game that if the movie does well review-wise (and by well I mean it only really needs to get 50%+ on Rotten Tomatoes to be one of the best video game adaptations of all time) those fans will have a fairly easy job in convincing friends and family who at least are well disposed to zombie flicks to go see it.

But they do need to keep a lid on the budget. The last big budget adaptation (Prince of Persia) did quite well at the box office, but because the budget was so huge it failed to turn a profit on in the theatres.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Terra - I think the best move would be to watch all of the cinematic cut-scenes on Youtube, so you at least get to experience the story first-hand to some extent.

But if you don't want to spend the time doing that, then here's a summary of what happens -

They get out of the sewer, but the boy (Sam) is bitten and becomes infected. His older brother (Henry) shoots Sam and then kills himself.

After that, it cuts to Fall. Joel and Ellie find Joel's brother Tommy. Joel tries to convince Tommy to take Ellie the rest of the way to the Fireflies, and lashes out at Ellie at one point, saying that he's not her father and she won't replace his daughter Sarah. But eventually he decides to stay with her, and at Tommy's direction they head to the University of Eastern Colorado.

Unfortunately, the place is abandoned, other than some monkeys and giraffes (and the scene with the giraffes is amazing - the sense of peace after all of the conflict leading up to it is very well done). Anyway - Joel and Ellie start growing closer, and you can see the bond between them, in spite of what Joel said to her previously. You find out that the Fireflies are now located at a hospital in Salt Lake City. At the end of the section, they are attacked by hunters, and Joel falls over a balcony and is impaled through the stomach by a metal bar. Ellie leads Joel out, killing the last few enemies while he stumbles after, but as you get past the last ones, he goes unconscious.

You wake up in Winter, playing as Ellie. She is hunting and kills a deer, but as she goes to pack it up, she is approached by two men (David and James). She agrees to give them the deer if they'll trade her some medicine for Joel. They agree - but after the trade, they reveal to her that some of their friends were killed at Eastern Colorado, and that she matches the description of one of the killers. She escapes and goes back to the house where she's made camp. Joel is barely alive, but she gives him a shot of the medicine. Then she hears the men outside - they followed her to the town where she's hiding, but they don't know which house she's in. She leads them on a chase away from Joel, but is eventually captured and taken back to their settlement. It's revealed that they are cannibals.

After that, you wake up as Joel. He goes on an absolute rampage to find Ellie. Probably my 3rd favorite part of the game, after the giraffes and the ending. At that point, you can tell just how much he has grown to care about her. He eventually tracks her down, but not before she is attacked by David, who attempts to rape her. You are going back and forth between controlling Joel and Ellie, and you control Ellie for the fight with David. It's brutal. In the end, he's kicking and beating Ellie, as she tries to crawl away......toward a machete that he dropped earlier in the fight. She gets close, but he knocks her over, flips her on her back, and starts to choker her. She reaches out in desperation......and manages to grab the machete and hit him with it. She then hacks into him over and over again, until Joel shows up a minute later. The reunion basically makes it clear that he views her as a daughter at this point.

Then it cuts to Spring. Ellie is acting different - no longer upbeat and positive, she's now kind of depressed. She makes it clear that she wants to find the Fireflies and sacrifice herself for the greater good. You make it into Salt Lake City, but Joel is knocked unconscious by some soldiers. When he wakes up, Marlene (one of the Firefly leaders) reveals that Ellie is heading into surgery. They need to cut her open to make a potential vaccine, and she's going to die. Joel refuses to accept that, and fights his way through the hospital. He eventually saves Ellie, who is still under anesthesia and not aware of anything that is happening. As he reaches the parking lot, Marlene tries to stop him. She says that she never wanted this, that Ellie's (dead) mother was her best friend, and that she practically raised Ellie.....but that it's necessary to reclaim the world. Joel shoots her, and then as she begs for her life, he fires again, saying that he can't have her following them.

Ellie wakes up hours later, as you're driving on a highway. She asks what happened. Joel lies and says that they didn't need her after all. They had previously found other people who were immune to the infection, and were unable to create a cure. So they just let her go. She seems skeptical, but doesn't say anything.

You arrive back in Wyoming, where Tommy lives. As you're hiking to his town, Ellie stops Joel and asks him to swear that his story is true. She clearly doubts him, and feels guilty about being alive. But he looks her in the eyes and swears that he isn't lying. She stares at him, and then says "okay," but you can't tell whether or not she believes him. Then the game cuts to black.

Best game ever. Probably meant a lot to me especially as a father, but I have no doubt that it's something everyone can relate to, and that it leaves everybody with a lot of things to think about.

Or, y'know, wait for the movie to come out.

I don't know, I think he wanted to change the game's prologue and Raimi had to convince him otherwise. I find that a little bit worrying.

Change isn't necessarily bad as long as it's still the same outcome. But I would go with Raimi's gut on that and because the prologue is good enough to stand as is it's good to keep it. But perhaps Druckman didn't quite like the how the prologue ended up in the game and if he had a do over would have done it a bit differently, and possibly a do over would have given us a better prologue. That sort of change is OK. Doing a movie of the game is a chance for Druckman to improve on things he felt could have been done a bit better. But trying to improve too much can cause the thing to unravel.

I see Uncharted movie is also still in the works. I'm more cynical and less hopeful about that, because while the characters are great the stories are shallow.

Troy Baker is nearly 40. With makeup they could age him up. Though he'd need to bulk up too to play Joel live. At least we know he's got the voice acting skills, and he knows the character intimately.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm pretty sure Sansa is mentioned to be 13 or 14 in S4. So Arya has to be younger than that. They play it fast and loose with the timelines but Maisie is still definitely playing an Arya who is much younger than her. Maisie can't exactly pass for a 14 year old, but the entire industry is casting characters with older actors. So she can certainly pass for a movie 14 year old if you understand.

I distinctly remember her commenting on her age in S4. Maybe I just made it up but I'm pretty sure. Sansa is still like 14 in the show. I think we just have to accept that the show's timeline is messed up.

But that's kind of a moot point. The point is Maisie can play Ellie just fine. Movies, from what I've seen, tend to cast teenagers in roles a couple years younger than the actual actors, for the most part. If a character is 14 the actor will likely be 15 or 16. The gap between Maisie and Ellie will be larger, but Maisie is petite. And Ellie can be made 15 if suspension of disbelief is that under threat.

As for why make the film? Money.

Acting wise I think Maisie could fit Ellie well, since Maisie is one of the better actors on the show, she's one of the youngest but some of the others could learn from her. She's subtle and never overacts, which isn't the case for the rest of the cast.

But lookwise I think she's way too unsimilar to what a 14 year old Ellie should look like. Sure, she is petite, I would guess Ellie might be around 5 feet and maybe Maisie is around there somewhere too. But, she's probably 20-30 pounds heavier then Ellie I think. Now I'm in no way saying Maisie is fat, so don't get me wrong, but she's a lot more big-boned and broad-shouldered then Ellie. She's also a lot more developed then Ellie, considering that Ellie is both thin and quite androgynous body wise. One point with Ellie is how fragile and innocent she looks, but she is very capable of taking care of herself. I just think it's too large an age gap for Maisie to portray a 14 year old.

My suggestion would be Joey King if they start shooting this year. She was in Wish I Was Here, Zach Braff's movie from last year.

edit: Although I agree with those who think this doesn't even need to be a movie. There's no way they're gonna top the game anyway where we have a 16 hour long story and condense it to 2 hours. They're gonna miss a lot but as you say, money is probably the only thing they're thinking about regarding turning this into a movie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Acting wise I think Maisie could fit Ellie well, since Maisie is one of the better actors on the show, she's one of the youngest but some of the others could learn from her. She's subtle and never overacts, which isn't the case for the rest of the cast.

But lookwise I think she's way too unsimilar to what a 14 year old Ellie should look like. Sure, she is petite, I would guess Ellie might be around 5 feet and maybe Maisie is around there somewhere too. But, she's probably 20-30 pounds heavier then Ellie I think. Now I'm in no way saying Maisie is fat, so don't get me wrong, but she's a lot more big-boned and broad-shouldered then Ellie. She's also a lot more developed then Ellie, considering that Ellie is both thin and quite androgynous body wise. One point with Ellie is how fragile and innocent she looks, but she is very capable of taking care of herself. I just think it's too large an age gap for Maisie to portray a 14 year old.

My suggestion would be Joey King if they start shooting this year. She was in Wish I Was Here, Zach Braff's movie from last year.

Well this is really just getting into "she doesn't look exactly like the original character so we can't cast her." Slight differences in build aren't going to stop them casting a great actress in a part which we know she'll be great at. If there's any point against her playing Ellie it would be that it might be too similar a role to Arya, and she doesn't want to be typecast.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Change isn't necessarily bad as long as it's still the same outcome. But I would go with Raimi's gut on that and because the prologue is good enough to stand as is it's good to keep it. But perhaps Druckman didn't quite like the how the prologue ended up in the game and if he had a do over would have done it a bit differently, and possibly a do over would have given us a better prologue. That sort of change is OK. Doing a movie of the game is a chance for Druckman to improve on things he felt could have been done a bit better. But trying to improve too much can cause the thing to unravel.

Troy Baker is nearly 40. With makeup they could age him up. Though he'd need to bulk up too to play Joel live. At least we know he's got the voice acting skills, and he knows the character intimately.

Eh, I just think that the game handed all the cinematic elements perfectly, and any changes that aren't cuts/simplifications for time reasons are a bit dubious. That this is a video game movie has me a bit more worried than I otherwise would be, heh.

Troy Baker doesn't seem masculine enough for Joel, to me. Maybe that's shallow, but Joel's a grizzled beefcake, and I can't see Baker being that, even if he's got the perfect voice and understands him best.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pretty spot on synopsis. A lot of those cutscenes are pure gold, and really hit me.

One nitpick:

The Giraffe scene is in Salt Lake. The monkey one is by itself in Colorado. That Giraffe scene is so simple, yet beautiful, as you said. I think it really moves Joel to see that something so simple means so much to Ellie, and just how innocent she is, making the decision for him to save her all the more easy.

Oh yeah, good catch. Knew I'd mix up a detail at some point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just thinking of the David scene after all the bloater/clicker fighting when he tells Ellie the story of the men he sent to the university, and the description of the man and girl who did the killing gives me goosebumps. He's such a villain; he gotta stay.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had no idea The Last of Us had zombies in it. I never played it because I never had a PS3/4, but I thought it was more of a The Road kind of apocalypse, not a zombie one. Everyone always goes on about how great its story is, so I'm disappointed to hear that its yet another zombie plot.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

The more I've thought about it the more I would like to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan in the role of Joel, but I accept there are several suitable alternates.



However, if he is going to stay in the plot, they must cast W. Earl Brown as Bill. Having slayed the voice acting role, with the physical representation matching him, it would be perfect.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why would you merge these thread when the last post in this earlier thread was back in August? Doesn't that qualify as a dead thread? We're talking resurrection from about page 27 of the Entertainment sub-forum.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why would you merge these thread when the last post in this earlier thread was back in August? Doesn't that qualify as a dead thread? We're talking resurrection from about page 27 of the Entertainment sub-forum.

Because it hasn't reached 400 yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The more I've thought about it the more I would like to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan in the role of Joel, but I accept there are several suitable alternates.

However, if he is going to stay in the plot, they must cast W. Earl Brown as Bill. Having slayed the voice acting role, with the physical representation matching him, it would be perfect.

I'm going to go with abso-fucking-lutely on that suggestion. Great actor and picture perfect age, appearance and physicality. But also agree that there are suitable alternatives.

Also Jeffery isn't fully an A-list actor, which means no major casting budget blow out to get him for the part.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because it hasn't reached 400 yet.

Doh! If you weren't a board moderator with an actual interest in the project you wouldn't have even remembered this thread existed. :-P

And you made this thread...slinks off quietly. :leaving:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just thinking of the David scene after all the bloater/clicker fighting when he tells Ellie the story of the men he sent to the university, and the description of the man and girl who did the killing gives me goosebumps. He's such a villain; he gotta stay.

Bill will almost certainly be cut before the cult of David is considered for the chopping block. David is quite significant as part of Ellie's personal growth. Bill just gives some vague back story to Joel's missing 20 years.

Also RE changing the prologue. It could be that Druckman wanted to make Left Behind the prologue so that we start the movie knowing Ellie and her situation rather than Joel. That could work without destroying the story, but I would prefer the game's prologue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bill will almost certainly be cut before the cult of David is considered for the chopping block. David is quite significant as part of Ellie's personal growth. Bill just gives some vague back story to Joel's missing 20 years.

Also RE changing the prologue. It could be that Druckman wanted to make Left Behind the prologue so that we start the movie knowing Ellie and her situation rather than Joel. That could work without destroying the story, but I would prefer the game's prologue.

Me too. I think the fact that it is 20 years later sets it a little apart from the modern trend in Zombies stuff. I suppose they could do it with a flashback or two as Joel and Ellie encounter different threats - forcing memories back to the forefront for Joel. One scene that needs to be in there early, IMO, is the (optional, in the game) conversation Joel has when he is with Tess before they attempt to cross the checkpoint at the start. Two hoods are leaning on a wall and one of the says something like 'hey old man", Joel says something nondescript back and the other hood, absolutely shitting himself, says something like "don't you know who that fucking is"? First time I heard that I thought, "My character is some sort of bad dude, here."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...