Screen Gems announced that it will be distributing a big screen adaption of the critically acclaimed The Last of Us video game from Naughty Dog.
Creative Director for the post-apocalyptic game, Neil Druckmann, will pen the screenplay, according to Deadline, who first reported the news. Druckman will also produce alongside Naughty Dog co-presidents Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra, Bruce Straley and Sam Raimi with his Ghost House Pictures company.
Clint Culpepper, Screen Gems head, said, "Screen Gems' Brian Dukes and Eric Long brought this game to my attention insisting we go after it, and when I saw the quality of the storytelling, I knew the audience for this project was far greater than just the gaming community and that Neil Druckmann must write the screenplay."
The video game, released last year on the Sony Playstation 3 cleaned house at the latest Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences D.I.C.E. Awards, reports the Los Angeles Times. It won a total of 10 awards, including outstanding innovation in gaming, character performance and game of the year.
Last of Us also won the Outstanding Achievement in Writing for Video Games award at the Writers Guild of America Awards and is up for another 10 nominations at the British Academy of Film and Television Video Game (BAFTA) Awards.
The video game, which was a hit both commercially and critically, is about a man, Joel, being tasked with protecting a teenage girl, Ellie, in a world ruined by a fungus that essentially turns people in zombie-like creatures.
Last of Us' only DLC Left Behind was recently released.
image courtesy of Amazon