Maisie Williams Courted For The Last Of Us Movie

With over 200 Game Of The Year awards, and an imminent Playstation 4 re-release dubbed The Last Of Us: Remastered (despite the PS3 version only being released itself a few short months ago), The Last Of Us was a true stand-out video game; a playable survival/horror game with more spectacle, more story, and much more heart than many a Hollywood movie; and thanks to its popularity, and heavily story-based nature, it was quickly optioned for a feature film adaptation, and could have just found the person to fill one of its leading roles in none other than Games Of Thrones’ Maisie Williams.

Williams, best known for playing the gritty tomboy Arya Stark in HBO’s Game Of Thrones is currently being courted for the role of Ellie; the young girl who’s transported across The Last Of Us’ post-apocalyptic wasteland, by her grizzly protector Joel, in search of a cure for the virus which has plagued the planet.

Whilst Juno’s Ellen Page would’ve been the natural choice (and the game’s creators were actually forced to change Ellie’s appearance in-game pre-release due to resembling Page’s likeness too closely), she no longer falls within Ellie’s age-bracket, and so Maisie Williams’ youth, appearance, tomboy nature, and clear acting ability (as well as her obvious, and continually growing, marketability) make her another sound choice.

Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Evil Dead) is producing The Last Of Us film; a buddy/road movie which will take place in a post-apocalyptic world, see two vastly different protagonists (a teenage girl, and grizzly middle-aged man) grow to depend on one another, and, according to the game’s original creator, and movie’s screenwriter, Neil Druckman, will retain a number of popular scenes from the game (such as the truck ambush).

Himself a gamer, Raimi thought when playing the game there was a movie within, and one he wanted to bring to the big screen (after becoming so emotionally invested with the story), and although he will be producing The Last Of Us movie he will not be directing (no director has been announced as yet), and while Maisie Williams is a potential Ellie, she’s yet to officially join The Last Of Us (nothing has been signed, and no actors have officially joined the cast as yet), also as of yet there is no official release date for The Last Of Us.

Matt Wheeldon – @TheMattWheeldon.
Source: San Diego Comic-Con.