DJ Caruso Explains What Went Wrong With 'Y: The Last Man'
Last we heard that Louis Leterrier, director of The Incredible Hulk and Clash of the Titans, was circling a big screen adaptation of Brian K Vaughan's Y: The Last Man, but Warner Bros/New Line don't know what to do with the property (Leterrier said in a later interview "I'd love to do it, but I need people to finance it, and the people financing it don't know if it's a TV show a movie, or what it should be.")
If you haven't yet read the series, pick up the paperback (or the new hardcover) of the first volume, as I very highly recommend it. You may recall that Eagle Eye/Disturbia director DJ Caruso was originally trying to get the film into production with actor Shia LaBeouf. Screenwriters Carl Ellsworth and Jeff Vintar contributed drafts, as did comic co-creator Vaughn, but in the end the project fell flat. Now DJ Caruso is speaking out about what went wrong. Hit the jump for details.
MovieWeb talked to DJ Caruso and were able to find out more about what went wrong with his attempt to bring Y to the big screen:
"I love, love, love that project. I think the biggest problem for me was I saw it as a trilogy. I didn't think that you could take Yorick's story and put it in to a two-hour movie and do it justice. That was sort of the difference. I think that New Line, working with Warner Bros. in their new relationship, just felt reluctant thinking that we can't leave this thing open. If you are familiar with the comic book you know it's just mind-boggling. If you look at what my buddy Frank Darabont did with The Walking Dead you think, I don't know is that the best thing for it? Because there is just so much great stuff, so no I'm not involved with that anymore. Although I wouldn't rule it out completely. It's one of those things where if someone came back to me and said, okay we believe in your vision of the movie, then I would definitely jump back in but I don't anticipate that happening. It's a tough screenplay to lick and we had some very good writers. But it was like you had to convince the studio that this movie could stand alone on its own. But at the same time there would be unresolved issues ultimately with what happens to Yorick and how it all ties together. It's really tough. If someone came back to me today and said they would love for me to jump in and do this the way I wanted to do it, I would. But I just feel like it's too much for one screenplay. I'm not involved with that now."
As much as I'd love to see a big screen movie with a big budget expansive scale, it makes the most sense to turn the comic into a television series. If they could bring The Walking Dead to the small screen, then I'm convinced they could do Y: The Last Man.
Previously:
The non-superhero series is what sucked me into reading comic books again, and remains my favorite comic book series of all time. Y: The Last Man follows Yorick Brown, a young amateur escape artist, and his Capuchin monkey, Ampersand, the last two men on Earth. Something (speculated to be a plague) simultaneously kills every mammal possessing a Y chromosome – including embryos, fertilized eggs, and even sperm. Society is plunged into chaos as infrastructures collapse and the surviving women everywhere try to cope with the loss of the men. Yorick goes on a mission to find his girlfriend Beth, who was on vacation in Australia.
I would love to see Y: The Last Man on the big screen but I'm not sure Leterrier is the director to helm such an adaptation. I haven't really been impressed by his filmography thus far, and I've heard not so great things about his latest, Clash of the Titans. I'm starting to believe that Y might make a better premium cable television series than a movie.
Vaughan is an incredible writer, also known for various other comic books including Runaways. Vaughan joined the television show LOST as a co-producer and writer mid-way through Season 3, but left last year. His presence could be felt though the pop culture-infused dialogue and some of the series' epic plot twists and cliffhangers. Vaughan has been working to invade Hollywood, writing screenplays including: Roundtable setup at Dreamworks, developing his Marvel comic Runwaways, and an adaptation of his comic Ex Machina is in development over at BenderSpink.