HBO’s The Last of Us series is expected to start filming in July and last a year
Pre-production is underway ahead of filming in Canada, report claims
Production of HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation will begin this summer in Calgary, Canada and is expected to run for 11 months.
Pre-production kicked off in mid-March and the cameras will start rolling on July 5, with the production wrapping up on June 8, 2022.
That’s according to the Director’s Guild of Canada, a national labour organisation that represents over 5,500 creative and logistical personnel in the screen-based industry.
Calgary’s International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees also lists The Last of Us as beginning shooting in July, CBC reports.
The Last of Us adaptation is set to be the first television series from PlayStation Productions, a studio formed by Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt its original game properties for film and TV.
In February, Game of Thrones actors Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey were officially cast as lead characters Joel and Ellie.
Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin is co-writing and executive producing the Last of Us TV adaptation with Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann.
The series is expected cover the events of the original The Last of Us, which was released in 2013, and may include content based on The Last of Us Part 2, which launched in 2020.
Druckmann, who is the creative director behind the Last of Us games, recently revealed that some show dialogue has been lifted straight from the game, although the TV series won’t be a direct retelling of Naughty Dog’s title and some episodes will even “deviate greatly” from the source material.
“For example, in the game, there’s so much action you have to have to train the player about mechanics,” he told IGN. “You have to have more violence and more spectacle to some degree than you would need on a TV show because you don’t need to train people on how to use a gun.
“So that’s something that’s been really different, and HBO’s been great in pushing us to move away from hardcore action and focus more on the drama of the character. Some of my favourite episodes so far have deviated greatly from the story, and I can’t wait for people to see them.”
Sony is reportedly developing three movies and seven TV shows based on PlayStation games, including an Uncharted film starring Tom Holland, which was recently delayed to February 2022, and a Twisted Metal TV series.