Tag: The Last of Us

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‘The Last Of Us’: Isabel Merced & Young Mazino Nab Roles Alongside Kaitlyn Dever In Season 2 Of Acclaimed Post-Apocalypse Series

The acclaimed series adaptation of “The Last of Us” is quickly helping to shape Hollywood’s new obsession with video game adaptations. This takes us to a post-apocalypse setting where the United States has been plagued with a fungus outbreak that has turned the human population into a mindless horde of zombie-like creatures. Survivors find a glimmer of hope when a young girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is discovered to be seemingly immune after being bitten but not being affected by it and a resistance group assigns smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) to get her to proper people who can potentially use Ellie to create a cure/vaccine. One of the more compelling aspects of the show has been the dramatic scenes alongside excellently written character moments that elevate the horror elements into something extremely special given the lackluster track record of projects being based on video games.

A second season is finally gearing up to begin shooting soon which means casting is in full swing. This week it was reported that Kaitlyn Dever (“Last Man Standing”) is set to play the role of antagonist Abby with more recent updates via Variety adding that actors Isabel Merced (“Sicario 2,” “Alien: Romulus”) will play Dina and Young Mazino (“Beef”) has taken the part of Jesse in the next run of episodes.

Other actors that appeared in the first season included Gabriel Luna, Anna Torv, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, Melanie Lynskey, Storm Reid, Merle Dandridge, Jeffrey Pierce, Lamar Johnson, Keivonn Woodard, Graham Greene, Elaine Miles, Ashley Johnson, and Troy Baker.

“The Last of Us” isn’t the only widely popular PlayStation exclusive game that is being given the live-action treatment as “God of War” is getting a series at Amazon Prime Video, Netflix landing a show based on “Horizon Zero Dawn,” and “John Wick” franchise director Chad Stahelski is aiming to bring the samurai adventure game “Ghost of Tsushima” to the big screen for Sony Pictures. There are also plans to make a sequel to the Tom Holland-led feature adaptation of “Uncharted.”

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in News, Television News

HBO’s ‘Last Of Us’ Series Adds ‘Mindhunter’ Actress Anna Torv

The Last of Us series from HBO has seemingly started shooting in Calgary this month and Variety reports that Australian actress Anna Torv has landed the role of Tess, a smuggler and hardened survivor. The rest of the cast consists of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as well as cast members Gabriel Luna, Merle Dandrige, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlet, Con O’Neill, and Jeffery Pierce.

Torv is likely best known for her work on shows such as Fringe and David Fincher’s Mindhunter.

The Last of Us takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival. 

Craig Mazin (HBO’s “Chernobyl”), Neil Druckmann (“The Last of Us” and “Uncharted” video game franchises), and Carolyn Strauss (HBO’s “Chernobyl” and “Game of Thrones”) are executive producers along with Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells and PlayStation Productions’ Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan. Written by Mazin and Druckmann, the series is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television. PlayStation Productions, Word Games, and Naughty Dog produce.

It will be airing on both HBO and HBO Max.

Pascal is also expected to eventually return for Season 3 of The Mandalorian, which is apparently already shooting shooting in the Los Angeles/Manhattan Beach area. However, it’s unknown when Pedro Pascal will be joining the cast as the shoot for The Last of Us is expected to continue into the fall.

The Last of Us is part of a new wave of video game adaptations based on Sony-owned properties. Tom Holland leads a feature film adaptation of Uncharted and John Wick’s Chad Stahelski is attached to turn Sony’s popular samurai game, Ghost of Tsushima, into a movie as well.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Michael B. Jordan Developing New ‘Superman’ Project At HBO Max That Will Focus On Val-Zod

Posted on in Television News

Season 3 Of ‘The Mandalorian’ Might Be Currently In Production & Won’t Air Until 2022

It looks like The Mandalorian will be ready to air on Disney+ sometime in 2022.

American Cinematographer has seemingly revealed that Season 3 of The Mandalorian has begun filming after doing a rundown of various productions using new advanced filming techniques, including ILM’s StageCraft. Below is an excerpt from their lengthy article where they mention the new season has started shooting.

Shows that planned to leverage in-camera VFX from the start include two that will be shot using StageCraft, Industrial Light & Magic’s real-time animation pipeline for LED volumes: The Book of Boba Fett, which will be released later this year, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, set for release in 2022. Both series will use the same volume initially built for The Mandalorian in Manhattan Beach, Calif. More Star Wars shows, including Andor, are in production at Pinewood Studios in England, where ILM has built another large StageCraft volume. Season 3 of The Mandalorian is now in production.

While they have zero reasons to make up news like this, normally, it helps to have either a trade or Lucasfilm/Disney to back this up. However, they’ve been sort of cagey with production details lately and we had to learn about Obi-Wan Kenobi’s shoot directly from Ewan McGregor as other folks weren’t talking to the press about it.

Season 2 ended with Grogu leaving with Luke Skywalker to be trained as a Jedi and Mando has acquired the Darksaber, making him the ruler of Mandalore and will likely lead to Bo-Katan challenging him at some point. It feels like a bigger Imperial threat has yet to be uncovered.

The Ronin can confirm that production designer Andrew Jones is back after working on Seasons 1-2 and The Book of Boba Fett.

Interestingly enough, Pedro Pascal’s The Last of Us series for HBO begins shooting this month in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and will likely pause shooting to allow him to film his scenes for Season 3 of The Mandalorian.

Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are coming off shooting The Book of Boba Fett with Robert Rodriguez along with both Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi still in production. It seems like Lucasfilm is burning the candles on both ends to double-up on their Star Wars content for Disney+ in the next year or so. However, it’s unclear when stuff like Ahsoka, Lando, The Acolyte, and Rangers of The New Republic will begin their shoots.

SOURCE: AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER

Posted on in Television News

Gabriel Luna To Play Joel’s Brother Tommy In ‘The Last of Us’ Series

Production on HBO’s live-action series adaptation of the video game The Last of Us will begin this July in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They’ve added another cast member as Gabriel Luna has been hired to play the younger brother of lead character Joel, Tommy. The news coming to us via Deadline.

Based on the critically acclaimed video game The Last of Us, the story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel (Pedro Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.

Luna is likely best known for his roles in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Terminator: Dark Fate, and briefly appearing in Season 2 of HBO’s True Detective.

Lead actor Pedro Pascal is also attached to Star Wars series The Mandalorian Season 3 which hasn’t officially started filming as Obi-Wan Kenobi is going to be the next Disney+ show to shoot at the California facility starting this month. Their is a new rumor making the rounds that Pascal’s Din Djarin will be appearing in The Book of Boba Fett.

There is a possibility that Pedro will shoot The Last of Us over the summer and might jump into The Mandalorian Season 3 later in the year when Alberta gets too cold to shoot outdoors.

Kantemir Balagov is directing the pilot.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

‘The Book of Boba Fett’ Will Reportedly See The Return of Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin

At the end of Season 2 of The Mandalorian, it was announced that The Book of Boba Fett would be a new Star Wars series coming to Disney+ and this led to Lucasfilm revealing that The Mandalorian Season 3 would be delayed. There had been confusion as the Fett project seemingly took over the production schedule that was likely meant for The Mandalorian.

The spinoff project would see Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen reprise their respective roles of Boba Fett and Fennec Shand. It’s also being produced by Robert Rodriguez, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni with the assumption they’ll end up directing episodes.

Well, it sounds like a familiar Mandalorian might be popping-up in the show after all.

Earlier in the week, Cinelinx reported that Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin is expected to appear in some capacity on the Disney+ series. Although, details are a bit scarce along with the how much we’ll end up seeing him.

The Book of Boba Fett has just about wrapped filming (if it hasn’t already) and details on the story/set have been ridiculously tight. That said, I’ve heard word from a couple of independent sources that at least one other familiar “face” from The Mandalorian will make an appearance: Din Djarin.

There is an expectation that The Mandalorian Season 3 won’t be filming anytime soon as with The Book of Boba Fett finishing up filming, Obi-Wan Kenobi is officially set to begin production in the California production space sometime this month. Pedro Pascal is also locked-in to shoot HBO’s The Last of Us series over the summer in Calgary.

It’ll be interesting to see how exactly Mando figures into The Book of Boba Fett and if it will to plant seeds for other projects set in the Mandalorian timeline.

SOURCE: CINELINX

Posted on in Television News

‘The Last of Us’ Series From HBO Expected To Shoot In Calgary

The Ronin can confirm that HBO is indeed planning to shoot The Last of Us series in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Based on the popular video game from Naughty Dog it was recently announced the main leads will be played by Game of Thrones alum Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.

Filming is said to be taking place from early July and finish early June of 2022 (confirming info previously shared by Knight Edge Media).

It’s possible they could pause filming within that year to allow Pedro Pascal to leave to shoot for his Disney+ series The Mandalorian in California. When The Mandalorian Season 3 is actually filming hasn’t been confirmed but during the fall/winter would make a lot of sense as I wouldn’t recommend HBO film scenes for The Last of Us outside during an Alberta winter. There had been some confusion previously when the Season 3 shoot got mixed up with The Book of Boba Fett. Pedro’s busy schedule could explain why Obi-Wan Kenobi is set to begin filming next month in Los Angeles.

The Last of Us series is being developed by Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.

Twenty years after a fungal infection obliterated most of the U.S. population and turned the victims into infected monstrosities, Joel is tasked with escorting Ellie to the Fireflies to help reverse engineer a cure. However, this isnt easy for either of them, since Joel has been left almost permanently bitter after the death of his daughter, and Ellie is distrusting of him.

Alberta would be sort of the perfect place for rugged and wild terrain for the show.

UPDATE: We’ve also learned that 20th Century Studios’ Predator 5 aka Skulls is said to be finishing pre-production tomorrow and likely will begin shooting sometime in April-May. Oddly enough, there hasn’t been any actual cast announcements concerning the film that is being directed by Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) but they seem to be deep in the casting process.

Dan posted this today on Twitter.

The Canadian province was previously used for Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Posted on in Television News

‘The Last of Us’: HBO Series Is A ‘Game of Thrones’ Reunion With Pedro Pascal & Bella Ramsey Nabbing Lead Roles

Despite previous casting rumors for The Last of Us, Deadline has revealed that HBO has hired Game of Thrones alumni Pedro Pascal as Joel and The Hollywood Reporter adding that fellow Thrones actress Bella Ramsey for the role of Ellie. Based on the Naughty Dog video game, The Last of Us focuses on Joel and his young companion Ellie has they navigate a post-apocalypse United States.

Twenty years after a fungal infection obliterated most of the U.S. population and turned the victims into infected monstrosities, Joel is tasked with escorting Ellie to the Fireflies to help reverse engineer a cure. However, this isnt easy for either of them, since Joel has been left almost permanently bitter after the death of his daughter, and Ellie is distrusting of him.

The series is being developed by Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.

Pedro Pascal is the lead of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian and his commitments to The Last of Us likely explains why Season 3 is seemingly going to be delayed. The Book of Boba Fett is reportedly shooting in California and Ewan McGregor confirmed Obi-Wan Kenobi will begin shooting there in late spring.

Deadline also pointing out that Pedro will be making the HBO series before moving on to The Mandalorian, however, it’s unknown when Lucasfilm will start shooting or if they’ll start without him.

He will continue on the Star Wars series, where he is used sparingly because of the nature of his character, though The Last Of Us has him in first position.

Lucasfilm just announced they had fired actress Gina Carano for an antisemitic post on social media and pausing production for a little bit might be a good call.

SOURCE: DEADLINE & THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

‘Borderlands’: Kevin Hart Confirmed To Star Opposite Cate Blanchett In Eli Roth’s Video Game Adaptation For Lionsgate

Lionsgate has confirmed via The Hollywood Reporter that comedian Kevin Hart has indeed landed the role of Roland in the live-action Borderlands movie from director Eli Roth. Kevin Hart’s involvement and his role was first reported by The Illuminerdi back in December.

The film is an adaptation of the video game franchise and has been in the works for so long that it originally had director Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man, Upgrade) attached before Eli Roth was brought on alongside actress Cate Blanchett in the role of Lilth.

The game’s story focuses on a group of four “Vault Hunters”, who travel to the distant planet of Pandora to search for the “Vault”, which is rumored to contain advanced alien technology and other priceless riches.

It’s script was penned by Craig Mazin, who is behind HBO’s limited series Chernobyl and the upcoming The Last of Us series.

Hart is best known for action-comedy roles such as the popular Jumanji movies, his cameo in Hobbs & Shaw, and recently shoot the action flick The Man From Toronto.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER & THE ILLUMINERDI

Posted on in Television News

‘The Last of Us’: Kantemir Balagov Tapped To Direct Series Pilot For HBO

There is a new update concerning HBO’s upcoming Last of Us series based on the popular post-apocalypse video game franchise from Naughty Dog and PlayStation.

Last of Us is set 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed and centers on the relationship between Joel, a smuggler in this new world, and Ellie, a teenager who may be key to a cure for a deadly pandemic. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle the 14-year-old girl out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey as they traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Kantemir Balagov will direct the series pilot.

Russian filmmaker Kantemir Balagov, the Cannes darling behind drama Beanpole, has been tapped to direct the pilot for the adaptation of the hit video game.

He replaces Chernobyl’s Johan Renck, who left due to scheduling conflicts.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

‘Chernobyl’s Johan Renck Says He’s Directing Pilot Episode For HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’

We were excited when HBO announced they would be developing a live-action series based on the Naughty Dog post-apocalypse video game The Last of Us with Neil Druckmann and Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin writing it. 

THE LAST OF US – Set in the post-apocalyptic United States, the game tells the story of survivors, Joel and Ellie, as they work together to survive their westward journey across what remains of the country to find a possible cure for the modern fungal plague that has nearly decimated the entire human race.

They’ve seemingly added another creative force behind the successful Chernobyl miniseries as director Jonah Renck will be involved. Johan revealed to Discussing Film in a recent interview that he’ll be directing the series pilot and hints he could potentially direct more episodes, but seems to be unsure if that will happen. 

RENCK: “I’m an executive producer on it and attached to it. It’s an ongoing TV series. So that’s not something that I will be able to take on to that extent, but I’m part of that series and I will be directing at least the pilot. Then we’ll see how it goes on further. I mean, both Craig and I, we are working with each other again and we will work with each other on other things because we like each other.”

HBO has yet to announce any casting for the series. 

SOURCE: DISCUSSING FILM