The Last Of Us Movie Release Date Slated For 2016; The Story Is Now More Focused On Joel And Ellie, As Screenwriters Had To Rewrite The Game's Narrative For The Film Adaptation?

It is official: "The Last of Us" movie release date will be in 2016. But fans of the game can expect changes in its narrative, as the screenwriters focused more on centralizing the story on the main characters Joel and Ellie by rewriting the story for the film adaptation.

Venture Capital Post revealed the "The Last of Us" movie release date only recently. And with this, it included the important development on the incorporated changes to the storyline.

IGN broke the news based on the film's creative director Neil Druckmann statement during his interview with MCVUK. He said that as expected, he had to rework the plot to condense the original 15-hour-long game narrative into a two-hour long story.

His exact quote featured on IGN, said:

"I'm in the middle of it now, and it's been super difficult because there's so much that happens in The Last of Us - even just in the cinematics - that can't fit in a film," said Druckmann, "let alone all the gameplay in-between and dialogue."

Because the primary aim was to focus attention on the two main characters: Joel and Ellie, the writers had to strip the content down to its essence to determine the most significant parts that directly connect to them.

Druckmann added that being "laser-focused," the story works more effectively for the film version. But the process of rewriting the tale was far from easy, he claimed. Having succeeded with making a character-centric story, the film's story is a balance between the aspects present in the game and the added changes.

Venture Beat reported that Druckmann had made the revelation in the San Diego Comic-Con. Aside from being creative director, he also serves as the film's designated screenwriter, thus putting him in the position to elaborate on the difficulties of improving the storyline without deviating from the main focus. Sam Raimi, the director of "Spiderman" and "The Evid Dead," is the producer.

Fans eager to see how the popular survival-horror PS3 and PS4 game would turn out on the big screen need not wait too long. After announcing the year, Screen Gems studio would eventually announce a more specific (with month and date) "The Last of Us" movie release date soon.