New Line Cinema Makes Brian K. Vaughan’s ‘Y: The Last Man’ Priority; Begins Meeting Directors
Posted by The Movie God | September 11th, 2012 at 10:00 am
Back in March it was reported that Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia, a writing duo that had worked on the cult classic TV series Jericho, had been brought in to pen a new movie adaptation of the brilliant graphic novel, Y: The Last Man.
Now comes word that New Line Cinema is very much fond of the draft that Federman and Scaia turned in, and they’re putting Y: The Last Man at the top of their list of priority projects. New Line is also now set to start meeting possible directors for the movie.
The comic, which comes from Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, tells the story of some kind of virus that wipes out every mammal with the Y chromosome, including every man on Earth…all except one, Yorick Brown, and his monkey, Ampersand.
A feature adaptation of the property has been in the works for longer than anyone who wants to see it happen would care to think about. Multiple attempts at making the movie have failed, and that means few will believe this is the one that will work. Still, it’s better than no movement at all.
Then again, it might not be good news after all. I’ve personally said it before, and, being in the middle of reading the series for a second time, I can say it once again: Y: The Last Man should NOT be a movie.
Simply put, it’s a perfect story to tell in episodic form. And with the constantly growing love for the movie-quality shows on channels like HBO, Showtime, and Starz, it makes way too much sense for this to be a TV series. Plus, Brian K. Vaughan worked as a writer on LOST for a couple of seasons, so he’d be able to truly be a part of the series much the same as George R.R. Martin is with Game of Thrones. There’s simply no way it will live up to the comic book if it has to be gutted to fit the two-hour restriction of a movie.
Once upon a time I wanted to see this adapted any way I could get it. Now, the thought of a movie scares me. Especially considering it would likely have to be PG-13 just to get a greenlight from the studio, and there’s no guarantee on sequels being made.
It should be a series, not a movie. HBO, are you listening?
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I am in complete and total agreement with you, it should be adapted as a TV series and not a movie. I think it would be a great fit for Starz or Cinemax since both networks are still trying to find themselves when it comes to their original programming. Also the source material would not need to be altered very much since both networks are premium cable.
This is not to say that it couldn’t work as a movie but it would need one or two sequels in order to tell the whole story. If the first movie doesn’t do well at the box office we will never get a sequel and it will probably be a long time before anyone attempts to bring it to television.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
