'The Last of Us' director is the perfect man to adapt the game's heartbreak

The incredible filmmakers who directed the episodes have a catalog of past movies that reflect the game's themes.

While video game adaptations have had a rocky history, it looks like the entertainment industry has finally found a way to do classic games justice. Recently, "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Uncharted" have both hit the box office, and "Super Mario Bros." is expected to be one of the top-grossing movies of the year. However, there may be no more anticipated adaptation than The Last of Us, HBO's series based on the 2013 game of the same name. The creative team behind The Last of Us is as much a story of trauma and grief as it is a post-apocalyptic adventure, reflecting the more serious implications of the narrative.

The Last of Us follows smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) who agrees to transport teenage girl Ellie (Bella Ramsay) to safety across a post-apocalyptic version of America. An outbreak of a mutated Cordyceps fungus turns humans into zombie-like creatures known as Infectors, causing widespread panic and social breakdown. Early in the crisis, Joel lost his daughter. Allie also struggles with trauma. She was nearly killed by the infected, only to escape with a bite mark that indicated she was immune to the virus mutation.

The series takes place twenty years after the outbreak, but Joel is still dealing with his grief when he agrees to smuggle Ellie out of quarantine. The series co-creators tackle the hauntingly emotional material alongside Craig Mazin, the Emmy-winning producer behind HBO's acclaimed historical drama Chernobyl. While Mazin directed a film in the first season, he joins an incredible group of filmmakers who reflect on the game's themes.

Ali Abbasi

Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi shines with his haunting dark fantasy "Frontier," which features incredible Oscar-nominated makeup and prosthetic designs for movie troll characters. Frontier explores how outsiders deal with the grief of being hated by society and spotlights the horrors of child pornography rings. That means Abbasi can weave genre elements into a story about healing from trauma, which will obviously play a big part in The Last of Us.

Abbasi also received praise this year for his new film "Holy Spider," another tale of shame and grief following an investigation into the murder of an Iranian sex worker. Adapted from a true story, The film explores female journalist Zal Amir Ibrahimi as she pursues the crimes of real-life serial killer Saeed Hanaei, who was executed in 2002. Thrilling thriller elements combined with riveting material suggest that Abbasi is the perfect man to helm The Last of Us' complex tones.

Jeremy Webb

In addition to award-winning filmmakers like Abbasi, The Last of Us also employs veteran television directors. Jeremy Webb has been on such critically acclaimed shows as The Umbrella Academy, Turn Carbon, Shadows and Bones and Masters of Sex.

He covered Frank Castle's (Jon Bernthal) PTSD episode in The Punisher, demonstrating an ability to create haunting backstories, in which he Examines how the murder of the titular character's family continues to haunt him; like Joel, Frank tries to restore his career as a way to ignore his heartbreak. Webb also explored David Haller's (Dan Stevens) mental illness in Legion. The X-Men spin-off shows how trauma, anxiety, and discrimination turned Davis into an outsider, even among his New Mutant allies.

Neil Druckmann

Apparently, the original game's writers and creative directors were responsible for making sure the series was tonally aligned with the His original vision. The Last of Us has been praised not only for its gameplay, but also for its truly cinematic story and writing. The competition also showed that Druckmann can work with actors to bring the quality of a screen performance; Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson bring the emotional intensity of a feature film. During the development of the Sam Raimi-produced film adaptation, Druckmann expressed his belief in a more dramatic adaptation; he rejected the studio's request to include more action sequences in the film instead. emotional moment.

Peter Hoar

Peter Hall, another TV veteran with genre credits such as The Umbrella Academy, Daredevil, Doctor Who and The Defenders, proved he could do it with the incredible miniseries Sin Deep" made the audience cry. This miniseries chronicles the experiences of LGBT teens struggling with the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. While It's A Sin celebrates the beauty of these characters, it doesn't shy away from how they had to deal with discrimination and hate speech during the most dire times of their lives. Hall's portrayal of Ellie in "The Last of Us" is especially important for Hall's experience of showing young characters' grief.

Liza Johnson

of The Last of Us subverts many of the clichés in post-apocalyptic narratives and puts familiar genre tropes back in context in favor of a more realistic story. It's something filmmaker Lisa Johnson knows how to do, as she explores the deeply cynical roots of American pop culture and military obsession in her satirical biopic Elvis Presley and Nixon. The film forces President Nixon (Kevin Spacey) and "The King of Rock and Roll" (Michael Shannon) to realize that they no longer matter in a growing nation. Plus, Johansson's work on Barry and the sneaky Pete showed that she could bring dark, reclusive antiheroes to life.

Jasmila Žbanić

Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić, with Aida (Quo Vadis), created one of the "ugliest" war films in recent memory, which won the most Oscar. Nominated for Best International Feature Film Award. The film explores the Srebrenica massacre through the eyes of a teacher who witnessed adults and children in the community being sent to their deaths. Like The Last of Us, the film explores a bleak reality through personal experience, which in a way makes it all the more heartbreaking and disturbing. Žbanić's unwavering approach to substance and unfiltered depictions of violence are sure to draw attention. The dark tone of The Last of Us.