‘Y: The Last Man’ to be a Trilogy of Films with Big Changes

D.J. Caruso, the hopeful director for the upcoming film adaptation of the Y: The Last Man comic book series from Brian K. Vaughan, spoke to Sci Fi about the status of the script and any changes that will be forthcoming.

And some of them will no doubt annoy fans of the 10-volume graphic novel masterpiece. But apparently any changes that Caruso feels are necessary has Vaughan’s total support and backing.

He’s been great. He’s been reading all the drafts and sort of going with us. And the one thing which Brian did, which was really great, was to say, “Look, guys, feel free to change this or to do that. Don’t be so locked in by everything I did, because I understand that the movie is different than what we have, and … don’t let the fanboys dictate what you do if you change something.”

That’s cool and all, but we all know “fanboys” don’t give two flying hoots about whether or not an author approves changes to their story or not. They always, always want to see a faithful adaptation.

It looks like we’ll be getting as close to one as we can, but as with Lord of the Rings, some changes will be big.

If you don’t want to find out what these are, then this post is spoilerish in nature and you should stop reading now.

First off, there are going to be three films. That’s news to me, but it makes perfect sense considering the enormous amount of story in those ten volumes.

The first major change  is that Caruso plans to split Yorick from Ampersand for a good duration of the film.

And the second is that Yorick could get sicker the longer he’s away from his pet monkey. Meaning his life actually depends on his being near Ampersand, which is a big change from the Vaughan story.

“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.

So that’s kind of a big deal, at least to me. Separating the two characters (granted, one is a monkey) changes a big aspect of the story. I think the bond between the two could be developed much better if they traveled together, but perhaps they can still create that chemistry from flashbacks or other methods.

What about the idea of Yorick needing to be near Ampersand lest he start getting sicker? The one plot hole that I can see there is that the entire male population of the planet dies instantly, yet Yorick will slowly get worse instead of just dying quickly?

Perhaps there will be a good explanation for that, and maybe I’m over-thinking a script and idea that hasn’t even been approved yet, but I’m so totally excited to see this graphic novel series turned into a movie that it’s too much fun to pass up.

And like I said, the first script was just given to Warner Brothers by Caruso just a week ago, so there is still a lot that needs to happen if the director wants to hit his goal of a 2010 release.

Yeah. We turned in the script to Warner Brothers last week, and we’re trying to strategize and figure out [how to do it]. … It’s kind of new to New Line and Warner Brothers, because they have a new relationship now, and, yeah, we’re hoping that’s the next movie. And, hopefully, they’ll … give us the go-ahead to start prepping that movie. And I’d love to prep that late in the fall if I can and roll into shooting that … after the winter.

Caruso still has Shia LaBeouf in mind to play Yorick, a casting decision that I really, really like. Read the rest of the article to find out more about LaBeouf and other character ideas.

What do you guys think of the potential changes? Do you like the idea of a trilogy?

[SciFi]