Graphic novel fans got a bit of a treat this week with "Saga," which marks the return to monthly comics for Brian K. Vaughan, one of the medium's most acclaimed talents of the past few years. The writer has come to fame over the last decade or so from creating award-winning works like "Runaways," "Pride of Baghdad" and "Ex Machina," as well as screenplay writing for "Lost" and in the spec market. But he's still best known for "Y: The Last Man," his ongoing series about a virus that wipes out every man on the planet, bar one, failing magician Yorick, and his pet monkey, who must fight for survival in a world where women rule the roost.
With such an irresistible high concept, it's no surprise that studios were interested in a movie adaptation, and New Line Cinema snapped up the rights back in 2007, with the intention of reteaming the director and star of surprise hit "Disturbia," D.J. Caruso and Shia LeBoeuf. Vaughan himself penned a screenplay, intended to be the first of a series, but for various reasons the project never came together.
But with Vaughan back in the spotlight thanks to "Saga" (which is very promising indeed), it seems like the studio are taking another swing at bringing "Y: The Last Man" to the screen, without, it would seem, the involvement of Caruso. With the original creator busy adapting Stephen King's "Under The Dome" for Showtime, Heat Vision report that New Line have hired TV veterans Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia to write a new script.
The duo don't yet have a feature credit, but worked on series including "Jericho," "Warehouse 13," "Human Target" and the short-lived "Charlie's Angels" revival, and have a new big-screen version of "Zorro" (unrelated to the Gael Garcia Bernal-starring futuristic take "Zorro Reborn" in the works at Fox) in development at Sony. J.C. Spink, Chris Bender and David Goyer remain on board as producers.
Whether the new scribes have any more luck with the property remains to be seen; it's a sprawling tale, and might well be suited better to a TV version than a movie — indeed, Louis Letterier has expressed interest in developing the project for the small screen. But if someone can get it right, it could turn out to be a hell of a film.
I followed Y for a while but I got sick of it about 7 volumes in. I can see why so many people loved it but every single character was unbearably obnoxious and the dialogue was overwritten to the point of self-parody. The concept is pretty neat though. Would work better as a TV show I think, and given that the world isn't completely rusted-cars-and-tumbleweeds post-apocalyptic it could still look great on a basic cable budget.