Steven Spielberg loved the third chapter of ‘The Last of Us’ (and sent a letter congratulating the creators)

Finished the first season of The Last of Us (and with the second one in limbo due to the writers’ strike) it seems obvious that if we had to settle for one episode that got all the praise, it would be the third one. Long Long Time momentarily distanced himself from Joel’s story (Peter Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to narrate the romance of several years between Bill (nickofferman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), showing us a silver lining in the midst of the post-apocalypse.

This romance, which is far from what was seen in the original video game of Naughty Dogdazzled the audience, and among these spectators was an excited Steven Spielberg. Peter Hoar was the director of this chapter (after having worked on series such as It’s a Sin either The Umbrella Academy) and has counted in the hollywood reporter that after the broadcast craig mazincreator of The Last of Us, received a letter in the handwriting of the legendary filmmaker. Spielberg had adored Long Long Timeand so I wanted to applaud the efforts of everyone involved.

“A real letter from Spielberg reached Craig Mazin, the writer of my episode of The Last of Us, from the writer of all the episodes”, says Hoar. “He shared it with me, Nick Offerman, Murray Bartlett and the cinematographer Eben Bolter. And basically a whole bunch of middle-aged men started screaming because his idol I had found out who they were.” How could it be otherwise, there was a shared admiration for Spielberg on the set of The Last of Usso the arrival of the letter was very emotional.

“I think he probably knew who the others were, but he didn’t know who I was. Probably now i forgot”, jokes Hoar, to then investigate the writing of the episode as it was proposed by Mazin. “Craig may be straight, but has a warm heart. I think that’s partly why it’s so universal, because the focus of his was on love rather than gender.” For Hoar, the key was not to emphasize the homosexual nature of the relationship.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations about the character of Bill. Everyone says ‘Bill is gay‘. I said ‘well, is it? Could be it. But he doesn’t define himself with those words,’” he notes. “Craig wrote from what he knew, since he had been married for several years. He knew what certifies the success or failure of a relationship, and that’s what he came up with. He didn’t want it to seem like the story of a single group of people. If that had been the case, he would not have been so successful. would have felt like niche”.

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