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The Last of Us film moving ahead with Naughty Dog writing
Naughty Dog's stellar PlayStation 3 exclusive, The Last of Us, may soon appear in theaters, thanks to an agreement between the developer, Sony and Resident Evil: Afterlife production company Screen Gems. According to Deadline, the film adaptation will be written by Neil Druckmann who served as creative director on The Last of Us. Druckmann will also join Naughty Dog co-presidents Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra as well as game director Bruce Straley in designing the film's overall creative vision. Ghost House Productions, a company led by Evil Dead auteur Sam Raimi, will assist with general production duties. "Screen Gems' Brian Dukes and Eric Ling brought this game to my attention insisting we go after it, and when I saw the quality of the storytelling, I knew the audience for this project was far greater than just the gaming community and that Neil Druckmann must write the screenplay," stated Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper. Missing from Deadline's report is any info on who might star in or direct the movie. This means you readers get to fill the comments below with speculative casting choices - well, except for Ellie. That one's a no-brainer. [Image: Sony]
Uncharted 3 scouts Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Of all the things that Jimmy Fallon is -- a man who can't help but laugh at his own jokes, half the starring cast of the hit film Taxi -- he's been largely represented on Joystiq in one way: as a gamer. Fallon held up his reputation once again last night by having Naughty Dogs Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra on to show off Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, playing through a bit of the demo we saw last week at E3. Most odd about the demo, however, is Fallon's repeated amazement at what the game does when he himself isn't actually controlling Drake's actions. If Naughty Dog was hoping for Fallon to dramatically point out the game's scripted action moments, he more than overdelivers. Head past the break and look on in amazement with us, won't you?
Uncharted NGP takes place before Drake's Fortune, more details coming June 2
Though Sony Bend is tasked with developing Uncharted for Sony's next handheld system, the franchise creators at Naughty Dog aren't above answering a few questions about Nathan Drake's NGP outing. In an interview with French site GameBlog.fr, Naughty Dog co-president Christophe Balestra placed the new game's setting between the first and second Uncharted games, but was later corrected by Sony. "It is an all-new story set before Uncharted: Drake's Fortune," Sony told us. The correction is notable as Sony won't actually confirm any of the other details revealed by Balestra, telling us, "New information on Uncharted NGP (working title) will be released on June 2." The other details, however, are similarly intriguing: potential interaction between the NGP title and Uncharted 3 on PlayStation 3, and a focus on exploration over gunfights. Let's hope we learn much more on June 2. [Thanks, Elena]
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception gameplay debuted on Jimmy Fallon
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon hosted a televised demonstration of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception gameplay, which you can view right after the break. Guided by Naughty Dog co-presidents Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra, the brief snippet sees series star Nathan Drake and cohort Sully scurrying through a burning, rapidly disintegrating chateau. It's not much, but just enough to tolerate some of Jimmy's unassisted potshots.
Naughty Dog itching to work on next game and "get the most out of the PS3"
In an interview with 1Up, Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra of Naughty Dog detail the status of the company and how they feel moving forward onto other projects. Reiterating that Uncharted was developed as a franchise from the outset, Balestra states that everyone at Naughty Dog is incredibly eager to get stuck into their next project. With only 30% of the SPUs being harnessed for their first outing on the PlayStation 3, they seem determined to see what else they can do in the future. The Naughty Dogs also explain that in migrating to the PS3, they had to leave behind their proprietary programming language, Lisp, and start from scratch. Now that they have, any future endeavours will be that much easier with their (not so) basic grounding in coding for the machine fully established. Check out the full interview for more insight into the company behind Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.
Uncharted demo now works worldwide
It looks like Europeans (and Japanese PS3 owners) won't have to wait until November 22nd after all. A new post on the PlayStation.Blog by Naughty Dog's Christophe Balestra states that the Uncharted demo was never intended to be region locked. After discovering that it was, Balestra did his best to get it fixed for his fellow Europeans as quickly as possilble. The version available right now on the American PSN Store will now work on any PS3 in the world.Frankly, we're delighted to see this issue fixed so quickly, even though there was no obligation for Naughty Dog to have the demo work on any PS3 - what with the EULA essentially restricting "false" accounts. Regardless, we're always happy to post good news and will be sending a huge "Thank you!" to Naughty Dog on belhalf of all of our non-American readers. So what are you waiting for? Go download the Uncharted demo![Thanks, elephant_stone & Kiddie!]
