Along with the lack of any updates regarding "The Last of Us'" sequel that supposedly started development in the summer, it seems like the movie sourced from the hit video game has also been caught in a major snag.
The film adaptation is said to have been in the works since 2014 when Sony announced that Screen Gems would have the distribution rights to the film. Creative director of the video game Neil Druckmann would be the one to pen the story with Sam Raimi producing it. By 2015, the second draft of the script was already completed and some minor read-throughs with actors were supposedly done. But after that, the project seemed to have gone silent. It was only this April when Druckmann was once again pressed about it and he admitted that production had entered "development hell."
This time, Raimi shared his thoughts on the matter when IGN recently caught up with the film director and it seemed like what Druckmann said earlier this year is an indication of how chaotic the internal workings of the film are.
"With this one he went to Sony — who I have a very good relationship with -- but they have their own plans for it and I think Neil's plan for it — I'm not trying to be political — Neil's plan for it is not the same as Sony's. And because my company doesn't have the rights, I actually can't help him too much," the Tobey Maguire "Spider-Man" trilogy filmmaker said, obviously careful with his words to be as neutral-sounding as possible.
As it turns out, "The Last of Us" movie has fallen into the trap of "creative differences" which is quite common these days in Hollywood. And more often than not, unless someone gives way in this scenario — most likely the people from the creative side — one of them would likely exit the project or it gets canceled altogether. While the film has yet to arrive at that point, Raimi is staying with the production until hopefully, everything gets sorted out.
"Yes, I'm attached to it. I'm not too sure what that means. Right now it's just sitting there. They don't want to move forward, and it's not my place to say why, and Neil, I think, is in a slight disagreement with them about how things should go so there's a standstill. And I don't have the power to move it," he added.
