Turning video games into movies has always been a difficult prospect. Some may say it’s because turning a game with a ten-fifteen hour campaign into a two-hour movie isn’t exactly an easy prospect. Most of the time, it seems that filmmakers who adapt video games don’t understand what made the source material special and end up just parading the license without it being genuine (look at any of the Hitman movies).
It seems that Sony looks to keep the video game adaptations coming with the upcoming Uncharted film recently finding a director in Shawn Levy. They also announced a The Last of Us film adaptation, but unlike Uncharted, it doesn’t seem to be progressing as well as anyone would like.
Sam Raimi, the director of the Evil Dead and Spider-Man movies is serving the role of producer on the project, but appears to not exactly feel a whole lot of power or influence over the dispute between the screenwriter and Sony that has completely stalled progress on the project:
“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.”
Uh-oh, it seems like there’s a bit of a creative struggle between Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann (the Creative Director of the LOU game, as well as the movie’s writer) and Sony. When it comes to films, Sony doesn’t exactly have the most sterling reputation when it comes to creative types working with them to create one cohesive product (Spider-Man 3, Amazing Spider-Man 2, etc.), so this news isn’t all that surprising given Sony’s past behavior. Still, you’d think that Sony would be willing to let the same man who led The Last of Us to immense success have his way during the creative process.
Let’s hope that the two disagreeing parties find a way to cooperate and work together without Druckmann having to compromise on his vision for the film. Without him, this film will lose its heart and creator, leading to an adaptation that just may stray too far from what made the video game great.
What do you think about this struggle? Should one of the two just give in, or do you think they should find a compromise? Let us know in the comments!
