Ten years ago, the world was treated to a fantastic comic book. A complex, character driven narrative with superb artwork that was as bleak as it was funny, Y: THE LAST MAN quickly gained a cult following and received critical acclaim. In that time, comic-to-movie adaptations have exploded and producers pander for a piece of the printed pie. Now, New Line Cinema will bring it to the big screen and have hired scribes Stephen Scaia and Matthew Federman to pen the piece.
Y: THE LAST MAN by Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra concerns Yorick, one of only two male survivors of a mysterious worldwide plague that has wiped out every living thing with an XY chromosome. Along with his pet monkey/fellow survivor, Ampersand, he sets out into the newly female populated world to discover the truth.
The project was green-lit a few years ago and was set to be written and directed by Carl Ellsworth and DJ Caruso respectively. They were the team behind DISTURBIA (2007), which rose fears that Yorick would be played by Shia LaBeouf, who collaborated with Caruso on EAGLE EYE (2008) and the aforementioned REAR WINDOW rip-off. LeBeouf said he would not take the role as he felt it was too similar to that of Sam Witwicky from TRANSFORMERS, which was a simultaneous relief and insult to fans of the comic.
Scaia and Federman are new to this movie making lark, but have recently been attached to Sony’s new ZORRO reboot based on the novel by Isabel Allende. This is NOT the ZORRO REBORN project with Gael Garcia Barnal, which is a rival franchise from Fox and will basically be ZORRO IN THE FUTURE, which sounds fun, but we digress. Scaia and Federman have cut their teeth on genre shows such as WAREHOUSE 13, JERICHO and the short lived CHARLIES ANGELS reboot.
Hopes will be high for this new adaptation. With themes ranging from gender exploration to the ethics of cloning, Y: THE LAST MAN has long been one of the more intriguing and captivating series of graphic novels populating comic book stores the world over. We here at THN sincerely hope this adaptation will be more SCOTT PILGRIM than GREEN LANTERN *shudder*
Source: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
