I gotta say... this whole fungus thing is way more terrifying than whatever other zombie movies/shows come up with (I don't even think most of them bother with anything beyond biting and "something in the blood" or whatever).
I gotta say... this whole fungus thing is way more terrifying than whatever other zombie movies/shows come up with (I don't even think most of them bother with anything beyond biting and "something in the blood" or whatever).
It was much more terrifying in the game because it spread by fungus/mold spores that would float in the air everywhere and you would get infected just by breathing. No need for bites/physical contact.
Did they shoot the bridge scene in Fish Creek Park? I don't recall hearing of them being down in Fish Creek for any filming yet me and my buddy both shot up at the one scene where Joel and Ellie are crossing a bridge and went "That's a Fish Creek style bridge".
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The production team originally approached Con O’Neill, who played engineer Viktor Bryukhanov in Mazin’s previous series, Chernobyl, for the role. “I was pretty invested in the notion that if we’re gonna be telling the story of two middle-aged gay men, then it would probably be good to have two middle-aged gay actors doing it,” says Mazin, who notes many creatives involved in the adaptation were middle-aged, married gay men. “I was maybe slightly more insistent about that than a lot of the people around me.”
But O’Neill’s gig as Izzy Hands on Our Flag Means Death rendered him unavailable. That’s when producer Carolyn Strauss suggested Offerman, whom Mazin knew casually. “I figured, Well, if we’re gonna open this up, that’s where you go. I sent him the script and said, ‘Nick, if you don’t like it, I’ll never send you anything else ever again, because it won’t be better than this,’” he recalls. But Offerman also had a scheduling conflict. “I read the script, and I was like, ‘Oh no, what a dilemma,’” Offerman remembers. “Thankfully I have a perspicacious wife named Megan who I asked to read it, and she said, ‘Buddy, you’re going to Calgary.’”
Did they shoot the bridge scene in Fish Creek Park? I don't recall hearing of them being down in Fish Creek for any filming yet me and my buddy both shot up at the one scene where Joel and Ellie are crossing a bridge and went "That's a Fish Creek style bridge".
I was pretty impressed with how thoroughly they covered him gathering the tools to survive and be comfortable in such an efficient manner. For those who always tout the read media over the visual. That is an example of film in TV at it's best. When they can give you so much in such a small period of time.
The one thing I missed was when Frank arrived, he seemed to have advanced knowledge of Bill, and that he would be able to seduce him. Something was missing from the story there. But aside from that such a good use of the media they were working with.
This is really weird to me because I seriously wonder why not W. Earl Brown then. He said via twitter, "Unfortunately, I was not offered the role"... but I wonder if they even considered offering it to him, and if not, why not. Obviously Offerman nailed it, so excellent choice in the end but I am curious about what happened there particularly given that Druckmann was presumably at least semi-involved in casting, and what with Merle Dandridge.
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I also wondered when the casting was announced why Wersching wasn't playing Tess.
A role like Ellie obviously couldn't be fulfilled by the original actress—there was no way 39-year-old Ashley Johnson was going to play a 14-year-old—and I knew roles like Joel, Tommy and David would almost certainly be recast (although I would have liked to have seen what Nolan North could have done). While they did get Merle Dandridge to reprise her role as Marlene, I thought there were two other roles which the original actors could have believably reprised: W. Earl Brown as Bill, and Annie Wersching as Tess.
The only reasons I thought the producers may hesitate to do so were: 1) Brown I thought may have been a little too old, as he was already about 50 when the first game came out, and 2) Wersching may have been a little too young and too pretty.
As it turned out, his age wouldn't have been an impediment to what they wanted to do... he's only 7 years older than Offerman and looked like this in the recent Deadwood movie, which would have worked.
I suppose the answer was just "I don't see him as this version of Bill", who is obviously the same Bill but who lived a different life than the version in the game and those experiences ultimately created a different person.
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As it turned out, his age wouldn't have been an impediment to what they wanted to do... he's only 7 years older than Offerman and looked like this in the recent Deadwood movie, which would have worked.
...
I suppose the answer was just "I don't see him as this version of Bill", who is obviously the same Bill but who lived a different life than the version in the game and those experiences ultimately created a different person.
That's probably the best way to describe it. W. Earl Brown is a treasure and a tremendous character actor. I wasn't aware that he was in the video game (now I have another reason to lament not playing it), but from what people describe as Bill's arc on that platform I'm not entirely convinced Brown would have pulled the series' version off in the same respect Offerman did.
He has all the talent, but being a fan and looking at his body of work I'm unsure he would have the same softness regarding Bill's vulnerability that Offerman did. Brown can do vulnerable, but it's a different brand than what Offerman did in that episode.
Offerman also has a greater name recognition, and for what may be a somewhat minor role in the entirety of the story his face was featured prominently in trailers and teasers.
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Hah - Offerman's first impression of Bartlett, saying "you were friendly, you were generous, you made me feel like I might get out of this alive" reminded me that in the game, instead of the Linda Rondstadt song, when Joel puts in the tape at the end of the episode it instead plays...
Spoiler!
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