According to a report from CBC, HBO’s forthcoming adaptation of The Last Of Us is due to begin filming in July 2021. The TV series of Naughty Dog’s critically acclaimed post-pandemic game will begin filming in Calgary, Canada, from July 5, and it’s expected to be an extensive shoot. Filming is scheduled to wrap almost a year later on June 8, 2022. With such a lengthy schedule, the adaptation may not premiere until mid-2023.
During a Facebook livestream on Wednesday, Alberta’s Premier Jason Kenney described The Last Of Us as “the largest ever, I believe, film or television production in Canadian history.”
Craig Mazin, best known for his work on Chernobyl, will team up with Neil Druckmann, the game director for both The Last Of Us and last year’s sequel The Last Of Us Part II, as creators for the show. In terms of the cast, former Game Of Thrones’ stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey were chosen to play Joel and Ellie respectively.
With a filming date locked down for The Last Of Us, Pascal’s other commitments, particularly as the titular character in The Mandalorian, will be scheduled around a “first position” deal with The Last Of Us.
Behind the camera, directing the series’ pilot is Kantemir Balagov, a Russian film director whose 2019 WWII film Beanpole won him the Cannes Best Director Award. Balagov stepped in to replace Johan Renck in January.
As previously reported by GameLuster, Neil Druckmann explained that The Last Of Us TV series would lift some dialogue verbatim from the original source material, while other moments would “deviate greatly to much better effect because we are dealing with a different medium.”
The Last of Us TV series charts a journey from Boston to Utah in a post-pandemic US as Joel smuggles an immune 14-year old, Ellie, to a military group, the Fireflies, to create a vaccine for the Cordyceps virus.
