The amount of pressure that came with trying to turn the
dystopian video game “The Last of Us” into an HBO drama was intense: there were
the expectations of tens of millions of fans of the bestselling game, the
astronomical costs required — a reported production budget of more than $100
million — to pull it off, and the legacy of dozens of subpar video game
adaptations that had come before it.
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“You need to tune it out because it will destroy you,” Craig
Mazin, 52, a creator, showrunner, and writer on the zombie thriller series,
said in a call Wednesday afternoon from his office in Hollywood.
So it was rewarding Wednesday when the nine-episode series
with a no-longer-so-fantastic premise about a viral outbreak that leaves
society in shambles — though, granted, this one turned people into fungal
zombies — picked up 24 Emmy nominations. They included nods for best drama,
writing and directing, and acting nominations for the series’ stars, Bella
Ramsey and Pedro Pascal.
“We were all really blown away by the reception — the
enthusiasm and the love for the show is astonishing,” Mazin said of the series,
which is the first video game adaptation to be a serious contender for top
awards in Hollywood.
In an interview, Mazin, who won Emmy Awards for best writing
for a limited series and best limited series for HBO’s “Chernobyl,” discussed
what distinguished “The Last of Us” from the many video game adaptation flops
that preceded it, whether that model can be replicated and his hopes for the
second season.
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Given the various pressures and challenges involved in
adapting something like “The Last of Us,” how did it feel to rack up 24 Emmy
nominations?
It’s stunning, particularly for a show in its first season,
and a genre show. We were overwhelmed, though it’s a mixed-emotions day because
our business is in trouble, and it is the fault of the people for whom we work.
Even though it’s a day where you want to freely celebrate, there are so many
people — working crews and actors and artists — who are suffering because the
companies simply won’t do what’s required.
What made “The Last of Us” so different from the many
subpar film and TV adaptations of video games that came before?For starters, we have “The Last of Us”. It’s an amazing
video game, which I played when it came out in 2013. Even then, I could see it
was also just an incredible story with remarkable characters and, most
importantly, remarkable relationships. It was a story that was a game, not a
game that also had a story.
The other big part is this wasn’t something where a company
bought the rights to a thing and then went around going, “Hey, we want to
exploit this IP.” This was me and Neil Druckmann, the creator of the game,
coming to HBO and saying, “We want to do this out of love.” So we came at it
from a place of purity.
What was the most challenging part of bringing the series
to life?
The size. There are more words to write, more days to plan,
more actors to cast, more stunts to approve. It becomes an endurance test. We
shot for 200 days, living away from home during COVID — my wife couldn’t even
come to the set because it was a violation of the COVID rules. It was a very
arduous thing to do day in and day out in the heat, in the freezing cold, in
the rain and the snow. And yet, we did it, a bit like women who go through
labor and are like, “Oh, my God, I’m never doing that again,” and then a few
years later are like, “Maybe I would do that again.” I’m that mom who’s like,
“I think I want to do it again.”
What are you most excited about for season two?
I like tracking the growth and evolution of people, and I
like the way we get to continue this show but do a season that is not the same.
The thing about “The Last of Us” is that the story is constantly moving — we
don’t live in the same neighborhood; we don’t go back to the same shop or store
or house. Even episode to episode within a season feels like we’re in different
places, different kinds of movies. So, more of that.
There are a number of other popular video game franchises
with film and TV adaptations in the works, including “Twisted Metal,” “Ghost of
Tsushima” and “Assassin’s Creed.” Can the model for “The Last of Us” be
replicated?If they are starting from a place of purity, a place of
creative passion, then anything is possible. If the source material has great
stuff to adapt — and ideally, if its creator has the kind of generosity and
intellectual flexibility that Neil Druckmann has — then you have a real chance
of doing something that makes the fans happy but also makes new people happy.
What’s the point of making the show if you’re only making it for the people who
read the book or who played the game?
That’s why Neil wanted to do an adaptation in the first
place: There are millions of people who will never pick up a controller and
never play the game. They will never know this story, and he wanted them to
know it. And if people are coming at it like that, they have a real shot.
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