HBO is going big again with its budget, with its current series in production “ The Last Of Us”. The last time we saw them going over and above with their cost was with the season finale of Game of Thrones, which was watched by millions at their home. A lot of people had a lot to say about that, now it’s time to see what “The Last of Us” has in store for us.
About The Last of Us
The Last of Us is a live-action series based on a video game. The video game was first released by Playstation in 2013 and has since been one of the fan favorites. The latest version of the game “The Last of Us Part 2” was released in June.
The show is supposed to follow the same plot as the game. It will take place twenty years after the modern civilization has been destroyed by a pandemic. Infected humans, in the form of zombies, are running over the world, survival is vital, and you can see human civilization killing each other for amenities like food, water, weapons, and whatever they can get their hands on. In all that chaos Joel, a violent survivor is hired to smuggle a 14-year-old teenage girl Ellie through the wasteland of the US to some doctors. They believe she is the cure to the plague. What starts as a small job soon turns into one of the deadliest and brutal journeys.
Hence “The Last of Us” would take on the responsibility of showing us the pandemic, something we have seen already in real life, more brutally and chaotically.
While chaos is something that “The Last of Us” may share with Game Of thrones. It is now said to have something bigger to share with it as well, A Budget.
According to the report by Forbes, the president of IATSE, Damian Petti shared that the cost of “The Last of Us” supposedly “exceeds the eight-figure per episode mark”.
He also said
“So there is a multiplier effect on our economy in terms of its impact. There are hundreds of related businesses benefitting from the plethora of work.”
This statement suggests that a single episode of The last of us could cost at least $10 million. Thanks to a report by Collider, we already know that the series will have ten episodes in the first season. Which makes the total cost for the season up to $100 million.
With the addition of “exceeds” in the statement, we can speculate a potential cost of $150 million. Which even goes beyond the budget of the Game Of Thrones finale season. Game of Thrones had showtime of 8 seasons, the episodes of the last season started with a budget of $10 million but later gained cost to 15 million to execute more battle-focused episodes. With 6 episodes under its finale, the total cost amounted to $90 million which already is less than what The Last of Us has planned for its first season.
Where Is the Money Going?
Battles of Game of Thrones were legendary ( About the plot we can’t say the same) and they required such intensive cost but what is The Last of Us spending on?
The last of Us would require abundant special effects to execute the gory world of pandemics in the series. While The Last of Us may not have fire-breathing dragons it will have zombies and to make the series a success these zombies would need to go beyond the standards of Walking Dead. It seems like a job for “An army of hundreds of technicians” which will come with its cost.
Mazin, the show’s writer, who was behind the Emmy-award-winning series Chernobyl, also mentions that they are trying to “enhance” the show by adding some scenes to the original plotline “to fill things out and expand”.
It seems like HBO is taking this very seriously. Looking at the record of video games turned movies and shows we can’t blame them. Largely such movies have not worked with the audience, it will take a lot to turn that around. To make this series a success HBO is putting its all in the first season despite no promise of its ratings.
The last of Us starring ironically Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones and The Mandalorians) as Joel and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) as Ellie has just started its production. Under the guidance of Craig Mazin, writer (Chernobyl), and Neil Druckmann game writer and executive producer, it will see its working.
We have yet to see whether having such a big budget would pay off or would it be a colossal fail? Let us know what do you think!
