garrymad-gm t1_jcm8tjn wrote on March 17, 2023 at 9:14 PM

There’s no magic formula to these adaptations, there’s no, 50% word for word remake, 50% new material, that varies from property to property. But where these game adaptations go wrong is that the writers and show runners see the source material as “below them”, they actively seek to change what worked because they see themselves above games. Why the last of us worked is it respected the game, it knew what worked and kept the heart of the story. Craig Mazin loves and respects the games and with the help of Neil Druckmann figured out what needed to be kept and changed to make an adaptation work for tv. Was it perfect? No, but it delivered a damn good season of TV regardless of your knowledge on the game

EchoBay OP t1_jcm9skw wrote on March 17, 2023 at 9:21 PM

I think it was the first post show podcast where Craig and Neil talked about being massive fans of one another. They eventually met up through a friend, talked about what a TLOU TV show could look like, and Craig just took him straight over to HBOs offices and pitched the show right then and there.

Apparently, because Chernobyl was such a hit, they basically gave Craig a blank check to do whatever he wanted for his next project, and here we are.

So the key is finding a producer with unlimited funds and backing, who is a fanboy of a game, and wants to work side by side the director to fully adapt it.

Easy! Lol.