Since infecting the nation and sending Sony PS3 sales soaring it was pretty certain that viral apocalypse game The Last of Us would someday become a film, and that vision may be moving a step closer today as reports suggest that the project’s production will be handled by none other than horror genre veteran and Evil Dead creator Sam Raimi.
The Last of Us follows the post-plague survival saga of Joel and teenage orphan Ellie who make their way through a bleak US landscape filled with fungus-ridden walking corpses. The concept spins the zombie genre on its head and gives it a frightening new face with impressive creature concepts like nothing seen before which, if successfully adapted for the big screen, could be amongst some of the most fearsome movie monsters of all time – and who better than Sam Raimi to help shock cinema-goers once again?
The movie, however, would have to be something quite special to top the cinematic style and gripping storytelling of the gory game developed by Naughty Dog and as we know, live-action video game movies have often been at the butt end of the celluloid spectrum – Street Fighter and Doom to name a pair of particularly abysmal offerings.
Sam Raimi, founder of production company Ghost House, directed and gave life to the cult trilogy which included shoe-string budget fright flicks The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness and he was also responsible for the Hollywood rise (and fall) of the Spider-Man franchise between 2002 and 2007. Recently Raimi returned to the series he pioneered, working closely on the stunning and sickening 2013 Evil Dead remake directed by Fede Alvarez.
Fanboys and girls have already taken to the web to spew up their dream castings for the lead roles of Joel and Ellie, and the names of Hugh Jackman and Ellen Page (of course) have been amongst the front runners. But we think if Sam Raimi is in an executive role for The Last of Us movie there has to be a place for Raimi film regular ‘The Chin’ himself Bruce Campbell – Groovy!