Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

Y: The Last Man
6/11/09 - Shia LaBeouf, who has been under consideration to play the title character in a movie based on the graphic novel Y: The Last Man, told Wired magazine that he's no longer interested in the part.  Director D.J. Caruso had been touting LaBeouf as the perfect guy to play Yorick Brown, the last man on Earth and the survivor of a plague that has wiped out all males. Carl Ellsworth wrote the screenplay adaptation of Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra's epic graphic-novel series.  LaBeouf said, "I'm not willing to make that movie currently, and may be too old to play the role by the time it does come around."

12/15/08  - SCI FI Wire reported that director D.J. Caruso said Shia LaBeouf is interested in starring in Caruso's proposed film version of Y: The Last Man, playing the hapless slacker Yorick, the last man on Earth.  "Shia and I talk all the time, and when I feel it's right, I'll show him the script," Caruso said. "He's definitely interested.”   Caruso is currently completing a script for Y: The Last Man--based on Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra's acclaimed graphic novel series--with Carl Ellsworth.  The story follows Yorick after the sudden death of every male mammal on Earth. Caruso and Ellsworth turned in a script to Warner Brothers executives, got some good notes and are working on a bang-up third act that still sticks to the original stories very closely.  "We came up with some really cool things that would enhance act three and be close to what is happening in the series of books," Caruso said. "It was a ground-breaking idea. I know [the rewriting] is taking longer than I thought, but it's a really great project, and it's important that you focus on the story and get it right."  Caruso added that Y: The Last Man is envisioned as the first of three films. "It's definitely a three-parter," he said. "Trying to fit in the whole story in one is too much."  The graphic novel features a menagerie of compelling female characters, including Yorick's conflicted sister, Hero; the kick-ass government Agent 355, who is his bodyguard; and 355's sinister fellow agent, 711. The movie will include all of them, but not as they appear in the books.  As for rumors that singer-turned-actress Alicia Keys is up for the key role of Agent 355? "It's too early to talk about who we're going to cast, and it's nice that the fanboys and fans are talking about it, but we haven't talked to her about it yet," Caruso said. "If we don't get Alicia Keys, though, I'm sure I'll make a pretty good choice.”

9/15/08 – SCI Fi Wire reported that Director D.J. Caruso provided a status of his proposed film adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan's best-selling SF graphic novel Y the Last Man, offering a few hints on how he'll adapt the sprawling plot for the big screen.  The key element will be to increase the urgency of the story, the first of three envisioned movies, by separating Yorick, the last male survivor of a worldwide plague, and his capuchin monkey companion, Ampersand.  "I just think what happens is that if you separate Yorick and Ampersand, then there's the potential that Yorick could get sicker and sicker as time progresses," Caruso said in an interview.  The idea that Ampersand is the key to Yorick's survival is one story element that differentiates the proposed film from the comics, which Vaughan created with Pia Guerra.  Y the Last Man centers on Yorick, a twentysomething slacker and amateur escape artist who finds himself the last surviving man after a plague kills every creature with a Y chromosome. He and Ampersand embark on a journey to find his fiancee, Beth, in Australia, accompanied by 355, an agent of a secret government agency, and Dr. Mann, a cloning scientist who may hold the key to the plague's cure.

07/30/07 - D.J. Caruso will direct and Carl Ellsworth will write the SF comic-book adaptation Y: The Last Man.  The story focuses on a plague that kills nearly all the world's male mammals overnight. A magician who's the only male survivor and his male pet monkey set out to find what may have wiped out the gender.

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