The Last of Us Movie Development Hasn't Progressed for "Over a Year," Says Uncharted 4 Director

Neil Druckmann, director of The Last of Us and upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, has provided an update on the status of the Uncharted and The Last of Us movies.

Speaking to IGN, Druckmann said that, while a table read for The Last of Us' script had occurred, work on Hollywood adaptation of Naughty Dog's critically acclaimed game had since stalled.

"I know I said in an interview a while back we had a table read, got the script to a good place and it kind of entered development hell like these things tend to do," he explained. "There hasn't been any work done on it in over a year and a half."

Druckmann, who wrote the script for The Last of Us movie, previously revealed it won't follow the 2013 title's story exactly, but it will instead capture its overall tone. As of yet no director has been announced, but Spider-Man veteran Sam Raimi is confirmed to be producing it. Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams is believed to be a frontrunner for the role of Ellie.

The Uncharted movie, meanwhile, seems to be coming along, and Naughty Dog has only been "somewhat involved," according to Druckmann. The studio is presented with an updated version of the movie project "every once in a while," and its advice is always to focus on the relationships between characters.

"We'll tell them what we think works, what we think doesn't work," he said. "That's where we're at. Last I heard is they got a new screenwriter, but we haven't seen anything in a while.

"Our approach is just to steer them back to those relationships," he added. "The most important part to get right is Nathan Drake, [his] relationship with Elena and [his] relationship with Sullivan. If you don't get that right, I don't think the film's going to work. If you get that core right, there's a chance it could work."

In early 2015, a Sony hack revealed a number of new details for what had been planned for the Uncharted movie, and offered a look at the 124-page script. The voice of Uncharted's protagonist, Nolan North, has said he believes fans aren't interested in seeing Hollywood's adaptation of the blockbuster video game series.