The forthcoming TV adaptation of The Last of Us for HBO will be scored by the same composer behind the music for both The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part 2.
Gustavo Santaolalla, who composed and performed the original score for both games in The Last of Us franchise, will join Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann as senior creatives working on both the video games and the HBO series. Druckmann, the game’s director and writer, is a co-writer and co-executive producer of the TV show. He announced Wednesday that Santaolalla had joined the project.
Santaolalla is a two-time Academy Award winner, for Best Original Score, taking Oscars in 2006 and 2007 for Brokeback Mountain and Babel, respectively. The Last of Us, its expansion Left Behind, and The Last of Us Part 2 are his only video game scores. Santaolalla’s career as a composer for TV and film dates back to 2000, and most recently includes work for Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico and the true crime documentary Making a Murderer.
HBO announced The Last of Us’ TV adaptation last week. Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin is leading the project; he is also writing the Borderlands movie. This will be the first TV series for for PlayStation Productions, the film and TV group that Sony Interactive Entertainment set up last year.
The TV show does not yet have a release window. The Last of Us Part 2 is scheduled to launch May 29 on PlayStation 4.