D.J. Caruso says ‘Y’ is Next
Director D.J. Caruso has spoken with Marvel about Thor, as we reported last week, but clearly he expects his next film to be the first of a planned trilogy adapting Brian K. Vaughn’s Y the Last Man. He spoke recently with Sci FI Wire and indicated he delivered the most recent draft of the screenplay to Warner Bros. just last week.
“I’d love to prep that late in the fall if I can and roll into shooting that … after the winter,” Caruso said. “So Warner’s pretty hot on moving forward.”
Caruso told the website that he sees speeding up the film’s pace compared to the 60 issue comic from Vertigo. “Primarily in the first movie, I mean, it’s really important to stay focused on Yorick. And we do deal with Alter…the Israeli army and then the Chinese faction that’s coming in as well. But, you know, to get us going, to get us grounded, it’s really about Yorick. You know, the anchor of this particular film would be the Yorick-355 relationship.”
He confirmed that the studio was eyeing a late 2010 release and Shia LaBeouf, his star in the forthcoming Eagle Eye, remained his top choice for Yorick, the slacker who wakes up one morning to discover he was the last man on Earth. “Well, I think Yorick is a fantastic role for Shia. One, because Yorick has great sort of self-deprecating humor. … One thing Shia really brings to him is that … realistic acting style and being put in some crazy … super-realistic situations. Shia always keeps them real and keeps it grounded. He’s endearing. I’m hoping that the 355 relationship … I always thought it would be really cool to have that be sort of a [Robert] De Niro-[Charles] Grodin … banter type relationship, like they had in Midnight Run. I think that Shia would be a great sort of receiver and giver on both sides of that. I think he’d really bring a lot to it.”
As for the remainder of the casting, Caruso also acknowledged the recent rumors over singer Alicia Keys being added as Agent 355, who winds up protecting Yorick on his global journey. “I have not met her, but I mean she might be an interesting 355. I thought she did a cool job in the Joe Carnahan movie [Smokin’ Aces].”
I've long thought Y The Last Man would make a great film. The idea of a trilogy is even better. Done right, these could become a classic set of films. Hopefully, the creators of the series will have some input.