The writer of 28 Days Later says he thinks The Last of Us was better written than his movie.
In a discussion between 28 Days Later writer Alex Garland and Naughty Dog studio head Neil Druckmann on Sony‘s official YouTube channel, Garland told Druckmann that he took some influence from games like The Last of Us when writing the story for his upcoming film 28 Years Later.
Garland recalled that his original script for the film involved the virus from 28 Days Later being weaponised against China, but that director Danny Boyle wasn’t really interested in that story.
“I was thinking, why doesn’t he like it?” Garland said. “And I thought, oh, because it’s just not that good. That’s the reason, I see the problem. And so, then I thought I should be much stranger with this, much odder, so I came up with a completely different story which, in trust, has a Last of Us connection.
“And this is one of the odd things, is the degree to which we ever exist independently of narratives that precede us, and The Last of Us had such an impact on me [that] I’m not surprised.”
Later in the discussion, Druckmann said he found Garland’s words meaningful because he himself had been inspired by 28 Days Later when working on The Last of Us.
“I find it such a compliment that you say you’re inspired at all from The Last of Us, and somehow that carried through, because I was so inspired by your work,” Druckmann said.
“Let me say this,” Garland interjected. “The Last of Us is better than 28 Days. The Last of Us is better than 28 Days. Or at least the writing is – I’m not going to talk about the directing, that would be a silly thing, so not that.
“I know what 28 Days is, I know what I did, I know what that process was. The thing about The Last of Us was I was like, ‘oh, this is so much more sophisticated and moving’. It was moving. I’m not dissing 28 Days, I’m very proud of it, it’s a nice part of my life, but seriously, The Last of Us is another level so yeah, of course I was influenced by it. I was like, ‘shit’.
Druckmann responded by stating that the character of David, who was the main antagonist in the winter section of The Last of Us, was directly inspired by the third act of 28 Days Later.
“There’s a direct line between the fast infected [in 28 Days Later] and the infected in The Last of Us,” Druckmann explained. “It’s like, they’re sick, they’re not rising from the dead, they move quickly. There’s a direct line between Act 3 of 28 Days Later and – maybe it’s this Einstein quote, of ‘creativity is knowing how to hide your sources’ – but with Act 3, there’s a direct line between that and David in The Last of Us.”
“Cool, that’s nice,” Garland replied. “That’s nice. I’m very pleased to hear that. It was also very nice for me, with The Last of Us, to sort of feel like someone’s saying ‘raise your game’, you know. It’s a good feeling, it’s sort of encouraging somehow.”
The second season of HBO’s live action adaptation of The Last of Us premieres on April 13 in the US, with a PC version of The Last of Us Part II coming on April 3.
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