For the first time in history, a Russian director has been selected to shoot a potential blockbuster pilot on HBO. The first episode of the film version of the computer game The Last of Us (TLOU) will be shot by Kantemir Balagov, author of the winner of the Cannes Film Festival Dyldy, a film that former US President Barack Obama named one of his favorites.
Balagov got into a remarkable company: the showrunner of the series will be Craig Mazin, writer of “Chernobyl”, and the producer – Neil Druckmann, the creator of the original video games. The Russian director in his post noted the new colleagues, promising them that “the show will be very good”, and also thanked producer Alexander Rodnyansky “for faith, support and patience.”
Cult game
It will not be just another adaptation of a computer game, which has been innumerable over the past few decades, starting at least with the prehistoric Mortal Kombat. This is a truly iconic franchise, and millions of gamers and streaming service customers are intrigued by how the film adaptation will look.
Its action takes place in a fantastic future where humanity has become a victim of a pandemic. Mutated fungi, like the parasitic fungus Cordyceps, which parasitizes on ants, subordinating the will of insects to their biological interests, have learned, once they enter the human body, to turn it into a zombie. The main character, a rogue and smuggler Joel, is tasked with taking a girl named Ellie from point A to point B, after which extremely dangerous adventures begin.
Mikhail Lisetskiy, director of Streamfest and game critic, explains the popularity of the game by three factors: “Firstly, the game was a technological breakthrough, it squeezed out of the third Playstation everything that this console was capable of. Secondly, then the exclusives of Sony (games supported only by the Playstation platform) rested on cinematography, and The Last of Us in the immersive cinema genre was out of competition, like Druckmann’s previous work The Uncharted. Only if the latter was a classic adventure novel, then this one became a great dramatic and even tragic work. “
It was the plot that TLOU took for the soul of even the hardest-hitting gamers. “Post-apocalypse has been in vogue for the last twenty years, including in the gaming industry,” says Lisetskiy. – A good zombie apocalypse differs from a bad one in that the zombies in it are only some external threat, a factor of fear and a target in the crosshair. The main drama, danger, an example of moral decline are always presented by people. TLOU wasn’t just a good zombie horror game. It gave the player the opportunity to experience the modes of archetypes going back to ancient Greek tragedies. “
Lisetsky compares the plot of The Last of Us with the big movie releases of the late 2000s – “Dear” and “The Book of Eli”. This was new to the gaming industry of that time. The same opinion is shared by video blogger Andrey Khestanov (The DRZJ): “People were fascinated by the cinematic narrative, in fact, the game confirmed its status of art, becoming something akin to immersive cinema. TLOU has also become an immersive “not for everyone” movie. It was designed for an audience that would be able to perceive such a complex plot. This is especially true of the second part, which polarized the gaming community. “
Series hopes
The director who was entrusted with transferring the legendary game to a relatively large screen, Kantemir Balagov, became famous in 2017 after the premiere of the drama “Closeness”, dedicated to people from his native Nalchik. The picture was shown in Cannes, the debutant was noticed. Two years later Balagov brought Dylda to the Cote d’Azur. With this film, he earned a director’s prize in the “Uncommon View” section.
The new appointment may be related to the impression this film made on Western audiences. Indeed, filming the pilot of the series requires a special approach from the director to visualization, visual elaboration of the universe in which the plot will unfold. “This is quite typical for Balagov and the people with whom he works,” says film critic Alena Solntseva. – Already in the “Cramped” he achieved the feeling of “his” Caucasus by very laconic, chamber, but readable means. It is clear that this is a director capable of creating a visual environment, which is very important for the series, given the direction in which television shows are developing in recent years. From the big movie they took a penchant and skill to work with the visual component. “
It is also important that Western companies are increasingly replenishing their media libraries with works by Russian filmmakers. One of the most high-profile partnerships of this kind was the series “Epidemic”, which was bought by Netflix, and even the “king of horror” Stephen King liked the show. The screenwriter of Epidemic and the newest blockbuster Silver Skates Roman Kantor was glad for his colleague-cinematographer Balagov, and not only for the recognition of his creative merits: Barack Obama’s review. It is gratifying that Kantemir was able to convey his vision of the future project to the producers. Mazin and Druckmann believed in his vision, felt the knowledge of the material. In addition, as far as I understand, this was Balagov’s dream project, which he had been thinking about for many years. It’s great when these dreams come true! I’d like to see what they can do. “
Video game adaptations are rarely recognized by the public, with the exception of Mortal Kombat and the first Resident Evil. Nevertheless, the interviewed experts are optimistic. “Previously, filmmakers did not perceive games as an independent art form. They shot the movie as an attraction, moreover, equally alien to the fans of the game and to the general unprepared audience, ”recalls Lisetskiy. In his opinion, the serial format is able to save the film adaptation from such a childhood illness, and the fact that Balagov is an ardent fan of the game will certainly not let him work carelessly. He only regrets that the actors who donated their characters to the characters of the game have aged and are unlikely to pass the casting.
.