How Not to Screw Up "The Last of Us" Movie

Let me just start off by saying that "The Last of Us" is without a doubt the best video game I've ever played. I may do a full "The Last of Us" review at some point, maybe not. But, I will say that I don't think there has ever been a game like this. Ever. (Warning: Proceed at your own caution. This contains very few minor spoilers. Definitely nothing major at all. I wouldn't ruin this masterpiece of a game for you. If you're worried about a very small portion of the plot points or characters being ruined, just stop reading this and come back to it later after you're done playing the game. It's too good to be ruined for you, even barely.)

First off let me say that I'm not even a big gamer. I haven't played a non-FIFA or NHL video game in a couple of years now. This game hit me like a freight train. In a good way. And if a non-gamer feels that way about the Last of Us, it's amazing to think about how a hardcore gamer feels about this game. I mean, shit, I'm writing a huge breakdown of how to make a successful movie out of it because even I care that much. There are two games that I will compare it to that stylistically and plot wise don't align with The Last of Us at all. What is similar, though, is the effect it had on people. By no means at all am I saying these games are on par with The Last of Us. If the games I'm comparing it to start making you mad, refer back to the first sentence in this write-up.

The first game I'm comparing it to is Halo. When Halo first came out, it was a revolution in the gaming world. It was one of the first games where people would go over to a friend's house just to play it. It was the coolest game to have. Everyone was talking about it. It was a game you had to have. It was a game that you stepped back and just marveled at what could technologically be done. That magic slightly reoccurred when Halo 2 and 3 came out, but all the people who were playing those games played the first Halo, too. So, it wasn't as magical then-they'd already experienced it. Halo has gotten its film plans scrapped in pre-production phases many times, so hopefully if they tease a Last of Us movie, they actually make it.

For a while, there never really was a game quite as revolutionary as Halo until Call of Duty Modern Warfare. The first one. And none of the rest. It was one of the first games that really took the online play to a new level. It was a game, again like Halo, that if your friend had it, you were jealous. You would beg your Mom to let you buy it. It revolutionized the gaming industry and certainly brought online gaming to a new level. It was something that was unparalleled. I mean, Halo 1, 2 and 3 had online features, but they never really are/were as popular as Modern Warfare ever was. In my opinion, no game at all has ever had a more popular and entertaining online play than COD 4 did.

I'm not the only one that believes the Last of Us is the Game of the Year. It's perfect in my opinion. As much as I'd like to talk about the gaming aspect of The Last of Us, I'll save that for if I do a full review of the game itself. But it is rather important that I discussed what I just did, in the way that this game already means so much to people. Let me say that one more time because this is the most important part. This game means so much to people. What that can mean, is that if a film for The Last of Us does indeed get green-lit, it needs to be just as perfect. The fans need to love it. It's been out for a little over 2 weeks and it already has a cult-following. That is pretty unprecedented.

Now, there has never been a movie that has successfully drawn its story from a video game layout before (cough...Silent Hill...cough...Resident Evil). In fact, no movie has even came close to successfully creating a story based off a video game. That's the issue here. If they make this a movie, the chances of it being terrible and pissing off the cult fans are basically 100%. You know, based on history.

I've been back and forth on if it should be made into a film since I first played this game. Let me just say, too, that as far as I've heard, there are no plans of creating a movie out of this game. I just love the idea of this and I've been talking about it a lot with a friend of mine. I love hypotheticals. I already know I'm going to over-analyze something that won't even happen. I'm sure I'm going to get carried away, too. But, I think that if done right, its full potential is an Oscar Best Picture, Best Actor, and certainly above all else, a Best Supporting Actress (I'll get to that in a minute). So how is it that the film gets done right, if they decide to do so? Well here are some of my suggestions:

1) Make sure Joel and Ellie are perfectly cast.
Joel and Ellie's dynamic has become widely acclaimed. It's without a doubt the best part of the game. Ellie in particular has been called "the best supporting video game character ever" by multiple sources. People who love this game mostly love it because of Ellie and the emotional plot (among plenty of other things. But mostly Ellie. Ellie's awesome). This is easily the part that scares me the most about adapting this game into a film-Ellie needs to be perfectly cast. She's 14 in the game. Fans will riot if the actress they get is older than that because that's just how fans are these days. The film being good weighs heavily on if Ellie is good. Quick sidebar: remember the outstanding Dead Island trailer? Then do you remember how shitty of a game it was? It let everybody down. It was such a disappointment. And for something that had so much hope, it almost was saddening what the game turned out to be. That's how this would be on a scale a million times larger. Anyways, if this movie gets made, the first thing people are going to want to know is A) Who's playing Ellie and B) Who's playing Joel.

It's funny, I couldn't put my finger on who should play Joel until I realized that the name "Joel" aimed me in the best option I've thought of so far, which is Joel Edgerton. The actor from Zero Dark Thirty, Warrior, and Animal Kingdom. What's weird is that Edgerton kind of looks like Joel (you tell me that picture doesn't look like Joel). He's definitely got the acting chops, as shown from his riveting take in Warrior, and he certainly has the "Badass-ness" necessary to play Joel. Just for kicks, another actor who could fit as Joel: Russell Crowe.

Ellie from The Last of Us

Ellie's casting is where things get complicated. I haven't exactly put my finger on anyone in particular. It seems extremely risky to take some unknown actress and throw her into what would be one of the most important roles in movie history. Abigal Breslin was a name that came to mind, but as you'll see later, she's not a good choice. Honestly, I don't even care if Ellie is hot. She just needs to have the grit, humor, and kick-ass elements that she does in the game and I'll love her just the same. It's impossible to talk about a possible cast for Ellie and not discuss the Ellen Page situation. It's a weird thing to me-I never noticed it that much while playing it, but after reading articles and comparisons, I couldn't help but think about how closely they resemble each other. This bridge seems burned for good since Page seems pretty pissed about it, not that I think Page would be rightfully cast anyway. Ellie would easily be the best character in the film, much like the game. As I said before, Ellie's character has the best shot at any critical success as a Best Supporting Actress. Which makes the role coveted, as well as the most important role in the film.

2) Thrill of the Stealth
With a film that would seem slow at times with all the necessary adventuring, it without a doubt would need some good shootout scenes. But what helps make the Last of Us a stellar game is its stealth sequences. It gives you a certain adrenaline rush. The thrill of getting caught, to me, is higher than any thrill while being chased by the infected. Going back to Zero Dark Thirty quickly-remember how much adrenaline is rushing through your body when they storm Bin Laden's hideout? You know his fate. You know how the movie ends. You know what happens. But still, your heart is racing and pounding. That's what this film would need. It could thrive off of some of these scenes. There could be a few outstanding scenes with some Clickers. I think that would be awesome.

3) Study Up on the Walking Dead, The Road, and The Grey
I'll explain this better. I know at first that seems like an odd statement. Obviously there are a lot of things the Walking Dead does right and has in common with The Last of Us. But there are also a lot of people who have complained about some episodes being really slow. In some episodes, not much action happens and the fans don't like it that much. This movie's best parts would be the parts that are slower. The writer and director need to figure out how to keep the dialogue and the adventure entertaining and intriguing. What the writers and director should do is study the scenes of The Walking Dead that don't work, and establish why they don't work. And then avoid those elements. I mean, it is a "zombie" game (well, infected nonetheless). Same goes for the film/book The Road and the film The Grey. Study the problems of some of the similar plot points in each of these films, and stay away from them. I don't think these are the only three movies or television shows that producers should study up on by any means, I was just kind of listing off different films with elements similar to The Last of Us. Certainly films like I Am Legend or shows like Revolution could use some studying as well.

4) Emotional Tug
Rarely are there games that I am more excited about the cutscenes than the actual gameplay. Most games I'm like "Alright, I get it. Let me fuck some shit up now!". But this was one of those games where I just wanted to hurry through the gameplay in order to see where the plot goes. Let me clarify, too, by saying that the gameplay is nothing short of spectacular. It's nothing against anything involving the gameplay, it's just that the cutscenes and plot elements are just that damn good. This film needs to carry the same amount of emotional weight the game does. Joel needs to be damaged emotionally. Ellie needs to show her rare signs of vulnerability, and mental instability. The supporting characters need to be emotionally driven. Very much like the game-if the emotion isn't there, it just wouldn't work. 

5) Don't Make the Film for at Least 5 Years
In other words: don't rush it. This is for the benefit of everybody. It benefits Naughty Dog, it benefits the film, and it benefits the fans. If they force a sequel to this game or a spin off of some kind (please don't), by the time this film would come out, I'm sure the sequel would be out by then, too. It would go well together. It would let people who didn't get to experience it the first time, experience it again. Game sales for The Last of Us would increase. People will hear the news and want to study up on the plot and source material. Naughty Dog likes it for those reasons, but most importantly-the film can take its time to develop. It needs to be just as perfect of a movie as it is a game. I cannot stress that enough. Regardless of if it achieves the Oscar rewards I predicted earlier, it at least needs to be good. PS- This is what I meant earlier by the Abigal Breslin casting. She would look around the age if the film was being made right now. But in order for the film to work, it shouldn't be made for many years to come. Which, obviously means that Breslin would be in her mid-twenties when the film begins production. Certainly that won't work.

6) Get the Right Writer and Director
Duh. This seems really obvious. But I just want to make two points that will make this seems less obvious. Two films have been done before that should help educate the producers on what not to do. The Last Airbender was a horrid adaptation from the Nickelodeon anime by M. Night Shyamalan. Obviously, any movie-let alone the Last of Us-would be doomed from the start by hiring Shyamalan. But I'm just using him as an example for what can go wrong when A) The wrong director gets his hands on a project and B) A director with very little knowledge of the source material gets his hands on a project. He shit all over what was a very well done anime show that had a cult following. It angered fans more than any film I've ever seen. I saw the film at the midnight premiere, and 10 minutes in, people were booing and throwing sodas and popcorn at the screen. I'm not even kidding. That actually happened. I couldn't hear what was happening in the film because of overbearing boos. Which, might have been a blessing in disguise now that I think about it.

Another film like Sam Raimi's Spider Man, shows what happens when a director who is such a big fan of the source material can actually be toxic for the film. I think that they need to find a director who is aware of the game, aware of the plot, but is not necessarily a hardcore fan of The Last of Us. He does need to know, though, what this game means to people. I've honestly never seen a game carry this much impact on its gamers before, and an inexperienced director who's unaware of the circumstances could prove disastrous.

My suggestion for a screenwriter is Michael Arndt. He's got his hands tied pretty tight with the Hunger Games and JJ Abrams' Star Wars right now, but if he does those two things well, he should be looked at extremely closely to produce a Last of Us script. He took a film in Toy Story 3, knew what the previous films meant to people, and then delivered a spectacular film. If he succeeds with Star Wars and especially the Hunger Games sequel, he'll definitely know how to write a post-apocolyptic survival film.

As for a director, I honestly don't know. It's a big project. These days people want Christopher Nolan to direct everything. If he was announced for it I'd be overjoyed. However, I'm going to go more of a ballsy route and go with David O. Russell. Say what you want about his controversial directing style, but it is proven to work. He's a very accomplished director, and he gets the most out of every scene and every actor. I doubt he would ever do a project like this, but in order to get the best performances from Joel and Ellie, David O. Russell could be the guy. Another director who has recently done a great job adapting source material to screen is Ben Affleck. Who knows, maybe he casts himself as Joel. Which I wouldn't complain about at all.

EDIT: Wow. I just went with my gut on David O. Russell and turns out he was signed on to write and direct Uncharted. I don't know how things went down when he left the project. They claim it was amicable, but you never know with Russell. If went down badly, no way Naughty Dog and the production company OK's O. Russell for Last of Us. Unfortunate. Let's hope it's not like Halo and just keeps getting shelved and eventually disappears.
 
7) Great Supporting Cast
I really like what Michael B. Jordan has done for himself and his career. He's really become a skilled dramatic actor. I think he could be great as Henry. He's proven that he has the acting chops and Henry is a pretty key role. Other smaller characters like Tess, Sarah, and Tommy all need to be great-specifically Tommy. Tommy is Joel's brother who could strongly factor into whether or not the movie would be good or not, much like Ellie. His casting scares me because there's not a lot of actors out there who remind me of him. Also, just as important as a great supporting cast is choosing who stays in the plot and who doesn't. There are so many minor supporting characters in this game that if the film tries to keep them all, it would suffer. I think that they need to really think long and hard about who stays and who bites the dust. Certainly Henry, Tommy, and Tess need to be in the film. I think characters like Bill could get cut out completely and just be involved in the extended version on DVD or something.

8) Special Effects and the Infected

This is a video game screenshot you're looking at. Simply beautiful.

One of the biggest praises this game is getting is the way it looks and feels. Visually, it's fantastic. It handles great and the zombies look intense. Killing scenes feel real. The whole game feels real. If all of those things could be done for a video-game, picture how incredible it could be with the effects of a film. It could look incredible. But, it also would have a lot of potential to be overdone. I think that the infected need to play a key role, obviously. Same with the hunters and the military and the rest of the enemies in this game. In this day and age, it is nearly impossible to make battle sequences and peril sequences look bad. Look at Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters. That movie was atrocious, but the fight scenes were at the very least mediocre. Obviously you aren't looking for battle sequences to be mediocre, but it shows how easily it can be done these days. It's just a matter of not overdoing it. And like I said earlier, the game thrives off of stealth sequences and the emotional plot. Don't make the highlight of the film the battle sequences with the Infected. Not that they shouldn't be great.

9) Don't stick 100% to the Source Material
All of these are extremely important, but this might be the most important one next to the casting of Joel and Ellie. The beauty of what the Last of Us did, and what all video games should do, is that it laid down a perfect foundation for the plot line. There are no rules or specifics to what a director needs to keep in the film adaptation. There is plenty of creative freedom with certain scenes whether that's extending them or changing them up a bit. I think that the first half of the game needs to happen within the first 40 minutes, and that's at the very longest. You don't want an adventure-survival film to be too long (that was one of my only problems with the film adaptation of Into the Wild-way, way too long). But, as I said, there is so much depth to the plot and the characters that cutting out too much would be suicidal to the film. The introduction to Joel within the first 10 minutes is so riveting. I think that it needs to be kept intact as much as possible. There are few ways it could go about doing this. Let's break it down:

1) Clearly Joel is handling a lot of emotional baggage with what happened in his past. It may be an interesting route to use it as a flashback, or a nightmare sequence. Maybe right off the bat you don't get his backstory, you get a sequence with Joel and Tess in the quarantine zone. Then as the story progresses, cut in different scenes from the outbreak. I think that Man of Steel showed what happens when the emotional backstory gets meshed into the main plot. It didn't go well for me, though I enjoyed Man of Steel much more than a lot of people did. For the record, I don't like this idea. I'm just presenting it as an option.

2) Don't bring up Joel's past at all until about halfway through the plot or so. Minor spoiler alert here: there's a scene where someone shows Joel a picture of him and his daughter, which could be used as the first reveal to an average movie goer of Joel's past. Obviously having played the game and seeing what his backstory was with the outbreak, you know the baggage Joel is carrying. I think with a movie like this, though, an average viewer may have never played the game before. So playing it off like there's some baggage with Joel that you can't exactly figure out until it's revealed could be intriguing. I'm going to go back to the film The Grey here for a second. The beginning of the Grey establishes that Liam Neeson's character is going through some major depression and dealing with a lot of different problems. I think that it perfectly set up what his character was. I think the same could be done for Joel. Also, it keeps an emotional scene with Ellie on the board. They easily could bond over Joel's past, and maybe she tells a story or two about her past. It could be a beautiful moment, and I think this is the best option.

3) Keep it 100% the same. I don't like this idea too much. Don't get me wrong-the introduction to the Last of Us was the best character and plot introduction to any game that I think I've ever played before. It hooks you in. I do think, though, that if the film were to copy this 100% and keep it right at the beginning of the film, it could suffer. It would be cut down much shorter than it ever should be, which would detract from the sweeping emotional elements of the introduction in the game. If you haven't noticed, I strongly believe the film version of the Last of Us will make or break itself on emotional, relatable moments.

4) A combination of 1, 2, and 3. This could be dangerous when looking at the length of a film like this. But if done right, this is the best option. Maybe do a shorter introduction where you don't get all of what happened right away, and then maybe throughout the adventure, Joel starts having trouble sleeping or keeping his head on straight. While that's happening the audience is getting flashbacks revealing a little more of what happened. For an average audience that hasn't played the game, they wouldn't know all of what's behind Joel, but they certainly understand how he got to where he is and to be how he is. And then it would all build up to a big emotional scene or two with Ellie and Joel.

This leads me to my final point...

10) Don't Make it Too Long, Don't Make it Too Short

Another incredible screenshot of the scenery.

I think 2 hours is the cap for this movie. An adventure movie at 2 hours can sometimes feel like 2 hours and 45 minutes if done incorrectly. Or even correctly, for that matter. It can get repetitive and sometimes you just want the characters and plot to get to where they're going. They have to make every second count. No second can go wasted. There is so much content and action in this game that if time isn't used wisely, it could get way too long. As I said earlier, movies like Into the Wild suffer from being way too long.

I can't remember where i saw it but there was already someone who took all the cutscenes in the Last of Us and put them together in order. The thing was 93 minutes long I'm pretty sure. It would be a good foundation to watch all the cutscenes and decide what stays and what goes. Then fill in the rest of the gaps with some action sequences (it is a dangerous post-apocalyptic infected world, which can't fall 2nd to the emotional moments) and maybe some original story lines.

A few things to sum it all up quickly. There probably will never even be a movie. Hell, there probably won't even be talk of a script or more than a draft or two of a script. But it is fun to think about. I mean shit, I've basically convinced myself to at least start writing an adaptation. I'm serious. I probably will.

Something I didn't do a full write-up on is that they need to make it rated R. If they go for the cash grab and rate it PG-13 and take out Ellie's vulgarity and some of the action scenes and blood, it's not even worth making. Films that are adapted from video games usually have people throwing up red flags these days. A lot of people are beginning to say that there never will be a good movie that comes from a video game. I don't agree. I don't disagree, either though. I think that there are still many games coming out that have potential. Like this game. It's just a matter of getting directors interested.

Here's something no one really thinks about: most accomplished directors aren't playing these games. Which makes these projects easier to pass up, and then allows guys like Christophe Gans and Michael J. Bassett (Silent Hill movies) to get their hands on it. Most directors are worrying about their films and scripts, and not a video game adaptation. They aren't getting attached to games like The Last of Us. The closest to a big director getting a video-game-to-film adaptation was Peter Jackson and Halo. Then things didn't work out, and Blomkamp ended up just doing District 9 instead.

I just think people are skeptical. I have a feeling most people's reactions to this is "No. They can't ruin this game". The thing is though, was Silent Hill ruined from the film? No. The games are still incredible. Silent Hill 2 was one of my favorite games ever. I think people are just over protective of what means a lot to them. People are worried that a project will get in the wrong hands. Which, odds are it probably will. And who knows, maybe the Assassin's Creed movie gets things going for the video game adaptation genre. I'll tell you what, a film that has Michael Fassbender attached to it makes me very confident. It also is shocking to me the amount of reservations towards video-game adapted films. Obviously we've learned our lesson with Resident Evil and Silent Hill. But if someone told you there was going to be a Halo movie or a Last of Us movie, you're telling me you wouldn't be excited to see it? Really? I would love it. The success of the Assassin's Creed film will heavily impact what's to come for video-game adapted films. If it fails, maybe people give up trying for good. In my opinion though, this certainly is the biggest adaptation yet. Please be good, Assassin's Creed.

I have to say that about halfway through the game, I actually said out loud, "they should make a movie out of this". I've never said that ever while playing a game. Secretly, I always wanted a Deadrising movie, but when you stop and think about it, you understand why it would never work. I really do truly believe that the Last of Us could someday become a fantastic movie.

Well, what do you think? Do you have any reservations about a Last of Us movie? Is there anyone you could see cast as Joel, Ellie, or anyone else? What do you think they need to do to make a successful Last of Us movie? Leave a SPOILER FREE comment, and let me know!

You can follow Will Harmon on Twitter at @willharmon8.