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Maisie Williams And Kaitlyn Dever Were Considered For Canceled TLOU Movie | HBO Show has higher budget than Game of Thrones

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
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They is a dead ringer for Ellie, just think of all the positive press HBO would’ve gotten by making this brave choice.
 

kiphalfton

Member
Shit, when I think about this... I think "Fuck'em both, I have the games" But, at the same time, I have caught some of the Last of Us. It's not bad.. I pretend it's an alternate universe and it's no problem.

Same thing with Marvel stuff (which it technically now is).

When you think of it that way, it's a lot more palatable.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
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They is a dead ringer for Ellie, just think of all the positive press HBO would’ve gotten by making this brave choice.

Page is 35 now turning 36, entirely too old to play the character.

Would have worked out 10 years ago, but it doesn't really work now.

Maisie Williams and Kaitlyn Dever are perfect options as well and even they're a bit too on the older side. I would not have been upset though if Kaitlyn Dever was ultimately chosen, I think her and Nikolaj-Coster Waldau were probably my two top cast choices, though I think Josh Brolin or Hugh Jackman could have been excellent and maybe a younger Viggo Mortensen or Jeff Bridges.

When this is a hit, I think we end up getting a movie sometime in the next 10-15 years, but everyone I've listed will be too old to be involved.
 

ToTTenTranz

Banned
CG is expensive but the rumour of the series costing more that GOT is false according to chatter within the TV community.

But the budget does offer an opportunity for clever marketing. I blame Sony lol

It doesn't even make any sense for this series to cost more than GoT. There are no large-scale battles with hundreds of movie extras in customized clothing with prosthetics nor huge sets with big monsters. Everything is pretty much human-sized.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
They were clearly looking at actresses who could play a 14 year old for season 1, and then turn around and film a season 2 as a 19 year old.

I think that's a big portion of Bella Ramsey being chosen, other than her being a good actress of course.
 

Poppyseed

Member
It doesn't even make any sense for this series to cost more than GoT. There are no large-scale battles with hundreds of movie extras in customized clothing with prosthetics nor huge sets with big monsters. Everything is pretty much human-sized.
Have you seen the show to make the determination?
 
What's the most expensive production she was a lead actress on?

I know you're going to find a way to not count this based on your post's wording, but Season 8 Game of Thrones. Wasn't each episode 15-20 million each? She had equal screen time to everyone else and for good reason considering what her character ended up doing.
 

mdkirby

Gold Member
Why are these studios so hell bent on making these shows more and more expensive? TLOU is a franchise that probably could have used few if any CGI(Very few "alien" things to show, and the clickers could be made with costumes and makeup). The game barely have extravagant action pieces, and most of the core of the experience happens during the quieter times or when they are talking to each other.

The only big costs I see are the high profile actors, but even then.
There’s quotes from Bella saying how they didn’t really even need to act scared, because all the clickers were actors in terrifying costume and legit scared the crap out of them.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
I know you're going to find a way to not count this based on your post's wording, but Season 8 Game of Thrones. Wasn't each episode 15-20 million each? She had equal screen time to everyone else and for good reason considering what her character ended up doing.

So what you're saying is she was part of a large ensemble cast where she was not the lead and that is considered her breakout role?

What major productions followed for her after that? Exactly, nothing of merit.

She had a main role but not the lead role in New Mutants and that was about it.

This is a 10 million dollar an episode series where the lead actress is going to be for the most part a solo lead in season 2. This would absolutely have been a breakout role for Maisie Williams just as it would have for Kaitlyn Dever or Bella Ramsey.

Bella Ramsey and Kaitlyn Dever have both arguably had more productive careers than Maisie Williams. Kaitlyn Dever was the lead in Unbelievable and she was also a lead in Booksmart though it did not perform all that well at the box office. Bella Ramsey starred in the Worst Witch for 40 episodes. She also has the lead role in Hilda 26 episodes.
 
So what you're saying is she was part of a large ensemble cast where she was not the lead and that is considered her breakout role?
I consider anything 'breakout' when the person becomes a household name. That's superstar level. It doesn't matter if she was part of an ensemble cast. When I hear grandparents and the most casual of people who normally would never even mention things like Game of Thrones, suddenly start bringing her name up in random conversation, then yes I consider that a breakout role. I'd even argue that I can find more random people who know of Arya Stark/Maisie Williams than those who know of Pedro Pascal. Like most HBO series you can think of, that show created stars, which is why I wanted lesser known actors to star in this show. I understand why they didn't, but it would have been nice if they did.

What major productions followed for her after that? Exactly, nothing of merit.

She had a main role but not the lead role in New Mutants and that was about it.
You're right. And that also happened to a few of the other actresses from GoT who had red hot appeal after that show was over. Not sure who's fault that was, because some of the larger male cast members went on to be in pretty big movies and shows.
This is a 10 million dollar an episode series where the lead actress is going to be for the most part a solo lead in season 2. This would absolutely have been a breakout role for Maisie Williams just as it would have for Kaitlyn Dever or Bella Ramsey.
Again to the above, I'd argue that she was already a huge name to begin with. I'd even argue that's why her name was on the potential list of considerations, which is why I didn't like that news. Same reason I didn't like Sony just using Spiderman to play Nathan Drake.

Bella Ramsey and Kaitlyn Dever have both arguably had more productive careers than Maisie Williams. Kaitlyn Dever was the lead in Unbelievable and she was also a lead in Booksmart though it did not perform all that well at the box office. Bella Ramsey starred in the Worst Witch for 40 episodes. She also has the lead role in Hilda 26 episodes.
Very, very arguable. Productive? Maybe. Popular? No.

Regardless, you win the ultimate point about the number of leading roles as I can only argue the fact that Maisie's name carries more merit from a public standpoint. That can only take me so far and I knew where this conversation was headed, but it was a fun one to have.
 

mortal

Banned
What do you mean 'doesn't have Heath Ledgers acting ability???'
Have you seen The Worst Witch??? Her acting is off the chart in that!!
I can't tell if you if you're being sarcastic or just very impassioned :messenger_grinning_sweat:
I haven't seen her in that, so I'll have to take your word for it.
 

mdkirby

Gold Member
Then why are these shows so expensive?
Sets, costumes, production work is super expensive. And just because clickers are costumes doesn’t mean that they don’t also include cg elements in post. They also need to create a convincing post apocalyptic world, which will include expensive sets and expensive real world overhauls of locations they need to block off in cities, followed by expensive cg and post production to those environments. Actor fees also eat a huge chunk of budget, I’ll be Pedro pascal is taking quite a pay check. There’ll be a huge number of people involved in the production of something of the scale of last of us too, it just all adds up. It’ll be a bit hit tho, and it’ll hugely increase the mindshare for the games and thus drive tons of game and console sales (the cyberpunk anime on Netflix resulted in all time high player numbers for the game for example), with a huge Gaas set in the universe just around the corner. I expect it’ll be very profitable (and the rave early reviews will help I’m sure)
 

Jimmy_liv

Member
I can't tell if you if you're being sarcastic or just very impassioned :messenger_grinning_sweat:
I haven't seen her in that, so I'll have to take your word for it.
Ha! No, I was just being silly.

She doesn't look the Ellie and I've not seen anything from the trailers which makes me believe she can play the character but I'm looking forward to giving her the benefit of the doubt and watching the show.
 
nPi58wL.jpg

They is a dead ringer for Ellie, just think of all the positive press HBO would’ve gotten by making this brave choice.
do you have a time machine, before she even filmed Juno.

But at that point might as well get young version of the voice actress.
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Which actually plays Ellie’s mom on the show so… and actually looks like the actress playing Ellie.
 

dcx4610

Member
Both were a little too old by the time the show filmed but they would have been great at the time.

I like Pedro Pascal but Jaime from Game of Thrones was a shoe-in for Joel.

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mdkirby

Gold Member
Well, having now watched episode 1. I think the casting is spot on. Most of my doubts were about Bella Ramsey, but given Ellie’s character arc through both games, I think Bella will nail it. She will be able to effectively play the appropriate age range, and whilst her episode 1 character feels a bit aggressive and not sheepish/innocent enough, you can see enough of the viscousness in her to see just how well she’ll do once Ellie becomes bitter, broken, unpleasant and psychotically murderous in her latter years.
 

Inlusione

Neo Member
Honestly... I lost my interest in this show after Bella Ramsey's performance. Something felt off.
I don't care about how she looks, she just doesn't evoke that "Ellie vibe" from the game and it's so annoying. Joel is fine, his brother is fine, the entire cast is fine - this girl isn't, at least for me. I might be biased, but it is what it is. I'll keep watching it as it is a good show overall, but with less enthusiasm.
 
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