Director confirmed for the TV adaptation of The Last of Us
Russian filmmaker Kantemir Balagov will reportedly be directing the HBO series.
Russian filmmaker Kantemir Balagov will reportedly be directing the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us.
Although it was initially speculated that the production would reunite Chernobyl's Craig Mazin with director Johan Renck, Hollywood Reporter states Renck had to drop out because of a scheduling conflict, and now Balagov is slated to take the director reins. According to HR, this suggests "HBO is aiming for a serious dramatic tone for the adaptation".
HBO greenlit the new television adaptation of The Last of Us at the end of last year. As well as Mazin, the project is progressing under the watch of the game's writer Neil Druckmann, alongside PlayStation Productions, Word Games, and, of course, Naughty Dog.
Though little else is currently known about the project, it appears the show will follow the events of the original game, with fourteen-year-old Ellie being smuggled out of the quarantine zone by Joel.
The Uncharted movie and The Last of Us TV show are "just the beginning" of Sony's PlayStation push beyond games, the company recently said.
As we reported earlier this week, in a video published to mark the beginning of CES 2021, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan mentioned the Tom Holland Uncharted movie as well as the HBO The Last of Us show as "just the beginning of the expansion of our storytelling into new media and even wider audiences".
"Sony is a creative entertainment company, and entertainment has never been more important," Ryan continued.
Back in May 2019, Sony launched PlayStation Productions to develop and produce film and TV projects based on the company's catalogue of more than 100 games. In December 2020, Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra said 10 projects based on Sony's video games were in production: three movies and seven TV series.
