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Maisie Williams And Kaitlyn Dever Were Considered For Canceled TLOU Movie | HBO Show has higher budget than Game of Thrones

Draugoth

Gold Member
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The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann has revealed that Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams and Booksmart's Kaitlyn Dever were both considered for the role of Ellie in the canceled movie adaptation.

Ahead of the premiere of HBO's The Last of Us, showrunner Craig Mazin and co-writer, director, and executive producer Neil Druckmann both sat with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about the upcoming series. On the topic of finding the right person to play 14-year-old Ellie, Druckmann said that it had always been an important role to fill and that they saw "dozens and dozens" of candidates. The director said that the person needed to appear "tough and vulnerable and wise beyond [their] years and also have a potential for violence."

Also, According to reporting from The New Yorker, the live-action series has a budget higher than each of the first five seasons of Game of Thrones! While the actual figure was not revealed by the outlet, The New Yorker puts the number "upward of a hundred million dollars." That's pretty hard to believe, but it does say a lot about the network's faith in the series, and in its ability to find a passionate audience.
 

Nautilus

Banned
Why are these studios so hell bent on making these shows more and more expensive? TLOU is a franchise that probably could have used few if any CGI(Very few "alien" things to show, and the clickers could be made with costumes and makeup). The game barely have extravagant action pieces, and most of the core of the experience happens during the quieter times or when they are talking to each other.

The only big costs I see are the high profile actors, but even then.
 
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Maisie Williams for Ellie?

merryn-trant-game-of-thrones.gif
Both of them make more sense for a movie, but going with a series, yeah, that's tough. First you're not going to see much progression in appearance at their age, and Kaitlyn Dever is already probably too old to look like a teenager at 26, imagine in 4 years...
 
I'm a little more concerned with one of the writers coming out, and shitting on game storytelling. As much as I bitch about 'Sony-style narrative' games I'll fucking take any Sony studio writer over any hack in Hollywood.
 

Hugare

Member
I just saw The Whale and Sadie Sink (from Stranger Things) played the daughter. I thought she would make a great Ellie and the name of her character was Ellie. 😀
Sadie Sink was born to play Ellie. And she is such a great actress.

But she only got famous after the last Stranger Things season, so its understandable why she would never an option

Kaitlyn Denver looks a lot like Ellie, and would also be a great pick
 

analog_future

Resident Crybaby
Let's just say, the current star doesn't really look like an authentic adaptation of the game.

Finding an actor that looks just like the character they're playing is probably the least important part of casting someone right for the part.

Michael Fassbender looks nothing like Steve Jobs

Christian Bale looks nothing like Dicky Ecklund

Ray Liotta looks nothing like Henry Hill

Liam Neeson looks nothing like Oscar Schindler

Emma Watson and Rupert Grint didn't match their book descriptions in Harry Potter

Jennifer Lawrence doesn't match the book description of Katniss Everdeen



We could go on and on. Are there times when the actor does look like the character/person they're portraying? Yes. But the performance comes first and is exponentially more important that what the actor looks like.
 

yurinka

Member
Kaitlyn Dever would have been the best choice. Unlike Maisie and Bella she looks like very similar to Ellie.
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
Bella has the "youthiness" for a "Young Elly. . ." but I have no idea what they are going to do for "Old Elly" who - to me - reads as MUCH taller and has less of a height difference to Joel in the second game. I think out of all of these Dever would have been the better choice for the show OVERALL, though I think Bella makes a fine Elly for the younger version of the character.

. . .like I just Googled Ramsey and she's 5'1. That. . .is just not gonna work if they adapt TLOU2 and of course they have to.
 

EDMIX

Member
Bella has the "youthiness" for a "Young Elly. . ." but I have no idea what they are going to do for "Old Elly" who - to me - reads as MUCH taller and has less of a height difference to Joel in the second game. I think out of all of these Dever would have been the better choice for the show OVERALL, though I think Bella makes a fine Elly for the younger version of the character.

. . .like I just Googled Ramsey and she's 5'1. That. . .is just not gonna work if they adapt TLOU2 and of course they have to.

I mean, did you think by season 3 she would stop aging or something?

She will be old enough to fit that role like a glove and I think it was wise for them to choose such an actor that can grow with the role.

analog_future analog_future This. The shows success will be based on the performances, not how much it matches to the game, the shows views will literally exceed anything the game has done for anyone to believe it MUST be 1.1 the game visually to work or something.
 
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Lunarorbit

Member
Finding an actor that looks just like the character they're playing is probably the least important part of casting someone right for the part.

Michael Fassbender looks nothing like Steve Jobs

Christian Bale looks nothing like Dicky Ecklund

Ray Liotta looks nothing like Henry Hill

Liam Neeson looks nothing like Oscar Schindler

Emma Watson and Rupert Grint didn't match their book descriptions in Harry Potter

Jennifer Lawrence doesn't match the book description of Katniss Everdeen



We could go on and on. Are there times when the actor does look like the character/person they're portraying? Yes. But the performance comes first and is exponentially more important that what the actor looks like.
This is true... But we already have a full movie of cgi that shows ellies mannerisms, humor, style, physical appearance....

So the comparisons were always going to happen. I think Bella has a better chance to accurately depict ellie than Pedro does of Joel. Joel is a harder character to nail down even if it doesn't seem like it at first.

Pedro and nick Offerman might just take me out of the show; it will be harder to suspend reality than it will be for Bella
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
She will be old enough to fit that role like a glove and I think it was wise for them to choose such an actor that can grow with the role.

Bella Ramsey is 19 years old. This. . .is what she's going to look like, barring - through some heretofore unknown medical miracle - a late stage growth spurt.
 

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
Man I feel like this thread needs a pole, like Who's the best to play ellie , the actual, both actresses in op's link or Nic Cage...maybe even Sif from Thor 2 the dark world.
 

Marvel14

Banned
Thank fuck it wasnt masie williams. She is a rotten actor. Unlike the autists in here that's all that matters. Not how they look.
 
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Pelta88

Member
CG is expensive but the rumour of the series costing more that GOT is false according to chatter within the TV community.

But the budget does offer an opportunity for clever marketing. I blame Sony lol
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
More expensive than a TV show was 8 years ago.

I mean that's still high budget.. but at this point, particularly with anything made in the last couple of years..

Budgets have skyrocketed w/o that meaning quality has jumped lol

This is still shaping up to be a really high quality show either way, but I wouldn't suddenly expect super high production value because they beat the highest cost show of 2015.
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
It only has a higher budget than season 1-5 of Game of Thrones. The latter seasons GOT has the higher budget by a good amount
 

Pelta88

Member
I think Dever, visually, is closer to Ellie. But as the reviews make clear, the performance of the actors is going to make or break the show. And obviously, Ramsey is a stellar choice.
 
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xrnzaaas

Gold Member
I can't picture Maisie as Ellie, clearly she was considered because of her HBO ties and popularity. Kaitlyn would've been a perfect choice though.
 
I actually find it sad that this whole time they were looking for people so high profile instead of taking a chance on a younger breakout star or an indie actress.
 
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