How (Not) to Adapt a Video Game

Jesus there’s two of them

holy shit tony is real

For me, the biggest issue with video game adaptations is that a majority of them are movies and not television series. People play video games for hours upon hours connecting with characters. Attempting to truncate that experience into a 90-120 minute film is a losing battle. Just like the game, you need the audience to live with the characters for a long journey. The Last of Us would have failed miserably as a movie. Uncharted would've succeeded as a series(with different casting of course).

Also the direction behind the Last of Us show is just masterful. They were able to make both subtle and major changes but still make the story feel complete and properly adapted. Like, the whole Bill episode could've literally been a standalone movie about 2 guys trying to find trust and love in a post apocalyptic world and it would've worked.

Eddy and Tony took me to chicago and made me lick the bean 😕

Dude they made Eddy and Tony into a real thing

It's also worth mentioning Amy Hennig left Naughty Dog during the development of of the 4th game. She was very influential in the direction the story and the writing went. People like to erase her influence like she didn't matter but she absolutely did. And the movie definitely suffered as a result of this too

Eddie looks like the dad that's desperately trying to bond with his son but Tony looks like the cool stepdad who the son admires and bonds with instantly

I was an extra in the last of us, and you could tell that everyone had a love for the production and the game. Even in watching set dec, they paid attention to every tiny little detail. For example, my back was to the camera most of my scene and you can only see my arm and the back of my head, but the makeup people decided they’d give me a sunburn because there wouldn’t have been sunscreen. Cool eh? Thought I’d share how dedicated everyone was for TLOU

On the topic of the Percy Jackson movies, the author tried and tried to get the studio to stop messing with the film. He sent multiple emails and they just straight up didn’t listen. So he tried but ultimately the studio just didn’t care

Mark Wahlberg being cast as Sully was one of the most baffling casting choices I’ve ever borne witness to and I’m so glad there are other people as angry and confused about it as I am

It was depressing how uncinematic the film was compared to the games. My favourite parts of the series are when you enter a new area and have these overwhelming landscape vistas revealed. There were no moments in the movie that inspired awe, mostly due to the fact that they only go to two different locations and there’s barely any ancient ruins (except for a small room hidden under a bar and a cave with two massive pirate ships). Also insane that there’s maybe two whole action sequences in the entire 2-hour run time!

Tony I'm so glad you got your brother Eddy to appear on camera, it's been too long coming. Glad to see Eddy finally getting out of his shell

The thing that gets me is Uncharted CAN be adapted! The fan film starring Nathan Fillion is AMAZING. And its because you can tell that everyone involved loves the games and wants to bring them to life. It references things like the transition from cutscene to gameplay in its framing. Nathan Fillion acts like Nate. He LOOKS like Nate, if maybe a bit old for the part. But no one really got paid for that project. They made it because they wanted to. The Uncharted movie was made for money, not love or art.

Pedro Pascal did such an incredible job - honestly, he shines in just about everything he's in, even something like WW84

You forgot to mention how the adaptation of The Last of Us also went through development hell. They announced they were working on a movie not too long after the first game came out and, at one point, the project even had Sam Raimi attached to it.

Really great editing to make Eddie look like 2 different people

Petition to adapt this channel into a video game

Fun fact, the voice actors in The Last of Us (game) had secondary roles in the TV show, including Troy Baker (Joel/James) Ashley Johnson (Ellie/Anna) Jeffry Pierce (Tommy/Perry) Merle Dandridge (Marlene/Marlene).

Y’all are so funny but also like- your passion is infectious. I never played the uncharted games and now I’m so upset with how dirty our story was done