Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann has made it clear that the upcoming movie adaptation of The Last of Us will be forced to leave a fair amount of content from the video game on the cutting room floor.
Speaking to MCV, Druckmann, who is penning the script for the post-apocalyptic horror flick, commented: "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.”
He reiterated that the nucleus of the story is the relationship between protagonists Joel and Ellie, and as such anything else is likely to get the snip.
“I’m in the middle of it now,” he said of the project, “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.
“What is this story really about?” asked Druckmann. “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.”
He went on to say that The Last of Us “almost has this novel quality as far as how much content there is, and a film works really well when it’s laser-focused.”
Nonetheless, Druckmann admitted that it’s been hard to trim the fat after being so heavily involved in the production of the video game.
“It’s been really difficult to cut certain things out,” he explained, “but what I’m starting to get is this really focused narrative that’s about these two characters. 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.”
The Last of Us movie was announced at the San Diego Comic-Con back in July. No release date has been set as of yet.