What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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T10 WHATS UP! January 15 - 21, 2023 They aren't looking for just any girl, though. Ellie, por- trayed by "Game of Thrones" and "Catherine Called Birdy" (2022) actress Bella Ramsey, could be the key to a vaccine. Most people exposed to the in- fection discover symptoms within days, but Ellie, infected weeks before meeting the smugglers, is far from becom- ing the mutated creature typi- cal of the Infected. Escape in a militarized, dis- parate society could be a fatal operation, even for experi- enced smugglers. After trage- dy strikes the group, Joel and Ellie must continue on their own, fueled by the belief that she is the only hope for the fu- ture. With no shortage of foes on the road, whether they are the Infected or soldiers manning the outskirts of quarantine zones, Joel and Ellie find allies along their journey, too. Gabri- el Luna ("Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.") is Joel's brother Tommy, and Nick Offerman ("Pam & Tommy") is Bill, an associate of Joel's with a highly coveted operational vehicle. With visual source material, actors always run the risk of mimicking an existing perfor- mance. Luckily for fans of the video game, the cast of "The Last of Us" tried to keep a healthy distance from the con- troller in order to develop their own take on the beloved game characters. In an April 2022 interview with GQ magazine, Pascal shared that while he doesn't have a knack for playing video games ("It really takes a specif- ic kind of skill, and I don't have it,"), he did watch while his nephew took over for a while. Pascal noted, "I found the whole of it such a visually im- pressive experience. And then I got worried that I would want to imitate too much, which I think could be right in some circumstances, and then a mis- take in others." Pascal went on to sing the praises of the creators of the se- ries, Neil Druckmann, who also co-created the video game, and Craig Mazin, creator of the crit- ically acclaimed, award-win- ning HBO miniseries "Cher- nobyl," by teasing that there is something for everyone in "The Last of Us." Pascal told GQ , "It really is made for the people that love it. And there's some very intense storytelling for people who might be less fa- miliar." If you are already a fan of "The Last of Us" in its video game form, you might be asking why one of the most popular video games of the last decade hasn't been adapted for TV or film yet, given that its initial success upon its release in 2013 spawned game and comic book story expansions. With a built- in audience who've logged countless hours of gameplay, "The Last of Us" was an attrac- tive property in Hollywood, but both a live-action film set to be produced by "Spider-Man" (2002) director Sam Raimi and an animated feature ran stag- nant and fell apart. In the end, the rich storytell- ing of "The Last of Us" feels right at home on HBO, whose HBO Max series "Peacemak- er," starring John Cena ("Blockers" 2018), and ensem- ble cast "Doom Patrol," both adapted from DC Comics characters, are huge hits for the network. Learn what it takes to survive a deadly outbreak when "The Last of Us" premieres Sunday, Jan. 15, on HBO. continued from page T2 On the road: Survivors trek through apocalyptic America in 'The Last of Us' TV FEATURE Merle Dandridge and Natasha Mumba in "The Last of Us"