Y ends, and begins...

So as you may know, I'm a fan of Brian K Vaughn's comic series Y: The Last Man. In fact other than Warren Ellis, Vaughn is probably my absolute favorite comic writer ever. Y in particular is a gripping story that is very accessible and entertaining; consequently I often use it as an ideal jumping off point to introduce non-comic book folk to the graphic arts. Admittedly I am a bit behind on the series, but that might have more to do with the fact that I only read my comics these days in trade format than anything else. So it's sad news to note that this month Y: The Last Man has finally after a very solid 60 issue run come to a conclusion.

But fear not, as I mentioned here a while back, Y the Last Man is coming to the big screen, and we recently got a few scant but tender morsels of news on it. Set to be directed by DJ Caruso, and written with Carl Ellsworth, the lingering rumors that Shia Labeouf is up for the lead have substantiated themselves. While nothing is official yet, and Shia has recently talked about how he's not sure where it will fit into his schedule, it's clear that everyone involved wants him for the job. Additionally in a recent USA Today interview Caruso has talked a bit about the initial plan to cram the entire story into one movie is not really fesable, so they have moved onto crafting a Y trilogy of films! The first film, whenever it actually gets made, will cover only the first 14 issues of the comic. The material is dense, and it deserves the time. Caruso also says that he intends to make Y his next project after he wraps on Eagle Eye (also starring Shia Labeouf) this March, but since he, and Shia intend to take some time off the start date has not been set just yet.

I'll definitely keep my eyes open for more Y the Last Man movie news, but in the meantime I highly recommend you try out the comics. It's really a great read, that will only get you more excited to see it on the big screen.
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Some non-news news

So I'm not sure exactly how interesting this post will be. Welcome to a series of non-update updates :)

A few to start from Jessica Alba. Recently in interviews while promoting her new film The Eye, which I have zero interest in, she addressed questions on her upcoming projects. These are the kind of questions that while they don't explicitly give any solid new info are the kind of notes that reveal more on what she's thinking, knows, or suspects about her upcoming projects. And interestingly enough Alba really does have a few projects we should care about.

Firstly, she was asked about the status of Fantastic Four 3. In stride Alba, told reporters that with the writers strike there is currently no movement. She says that the FF films take at least 6 months of prep work, which I can definitely believe, and that she unfortunately didn't expect the sequel anytime too soon. She also said that it would be fun to see Franklin Richards in the films. In the comics he's Reed and Sue's very precocious super-powered son. For the record, I would like to see FF3 follow our heroes into the Negative Zone and feature Annihilus as the villain, although I have a feeling they want to do a Mole Man story.

She also addressed questions on Sin City 2, saying that she has no solid update on it. And that Robert Rodriguez hasn't even talked to her at all yet. It makes me wonder whats really going on with that film...

Finally, kind of out of the blue if you ask me, she talked about a possible Dark Angel movie. If you'll remember, this is where Alba got her big break. It was a sci fi series created by James Cameron that lasted two seasons and featured Alba as a genetically engineered super soldier chick who is just trying to lead a peaceful life in post-apocalyptic Seattle, but gets drawn into a all sorts of government conspiracies and adventures. It is also the tv series that I worked on the entire second season of... Ahh, yes, my illustrious career in the film industry. On the best of days I was getting people coffee, not Alba's mind you, she had the 3rd A.D. to do that, but maybe for like... the key grip. Oh the memories.... Anyhow, the prospects of a Dark Angel movie are news to me. Alba says that yes, she has talked about it with Cameron, and they've kicked around some ideas. Nothing is set, but if he (Jim) wants to do it, Alba will definitely be up for it.

In other non news news, Jason Statham has been at it again, this time care of IESB.net, promoting the abysmal looking In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, and more. He talked about a lot of projects he's working on, from The Bank Job, to Transporter 3, and Crank 2: High Voltage (yes, they're really going to do a sequel...) But the oddest most totally out of the blue thing he mentioned, was his response to when they asked him if he's like to do a superhero film. His answer was that he'd actually already taken a meeting with Marvel about Namor The Sub Mariner, but doesn't know if he's up for it. He actually sounded like he wasn't really too interested specifically in that character, but he would be up for something if the right role came along. The really interesting thing though is the hint that maybe Marvel is looking to actually move forward on this film. Last we had heard, the Namor movie was scheduled to be directed by Jonathan Mostow of Terminator 3 fame based on a screenplay by David Self. I don't know where it was, but back two years ago or so I remember reading about how this film was on the Marvel fasttrack with a script that everyone loved, and a proposed trilogy of films. I think that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's name was even bandied about some. But somewhere along the line, Namor fell by the wayside, so this news of possible movement is definitely interesting. While I was never a massive fan of the character I definitely think that a good movie could be made with him. Have we ever even seen an underwater film starring mer-people with today's CG technology? I think it could be very cool. Although I might say as with Silver Surfer, he should probably be introduced in Fantastic Four, and then spun off into his own films. Whatever they decide to do though, I'll be keeping my eyes open for further news.

Finally, in Shia Labeouf news, as he was out stomping for Indy 4, and Eagle Eye he talked a bit about the proposed Y the Last Man film, and Transformers 2. Regarding Y, Labeouf says that he has been talking about it with director DJ Caruso, and they are both big fans of the comic. They want to make it happen, but just need to find time to schedule it. And as for Transformers 2, while it already has a tentative release date of July 26th, 2009, considering the WGA strike Labeouf says that there hasn't been any significant movement on the film. That said, I suspect that pretty much as soon as the strike ends Bay and co will get right on it. As we know Bay is already doing what pre-production he can. So we'll definitely hear more on that in the near enough future.

And that's all I've got for the non-news updates. Kinda nice to get a status check on a few things in the pipeline, despite the fact that there isn't really much to report. More to come on all of these projects as it develops.
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Y the Last Man movie!

Well it's finally happened, one of my all time favorite alternative comics is coming to the big screen, Y the Last Man. I tried looking it up here, cause I was pretty sure I'd talked about this comic before on the blog, but apparently not... either that or my searching skillz are really weak. Regardless, I'll do a quick recap for those of you just joining us.

Y the Last Man, follows Yorick a twentysomething somewhat direction less guy, who works an illusionist and escape artist. He has a girlfriend named Beth and a pet monkey named Ampersand. Basically he's just a regular guy, ok other than being an escape artist and having a monkey ;) What I mean is that he's regular in that he has problems like the rest of us, he's grappling with being an adult, having a relationship, and all the other regular stuff that affects everyone. One thing everyone who reads this book comes away with is the sense of realism Even in incredible, situations the context both literal and emotional is conveyed extremely realistically.

So anyway, as you might imagine, Yorick is horrified to wake up one day to find disease sweeping the world killing every single male on earth. Maybe even more horrifying though is that for some reason while everyone, I mean EVERYone and EVERYthing on Earth with a Y chromosome is dying all around them, for some reason Yorick and his monkey still survive.

Sooner than you'd think Yorick finds that he is in fact the last man on earth. Society has truly collapsed, and the story really kicks off with Yorick deciding to pick his way through the ashes of this new world and travel around the globe to Australia and try to find his missing girlfriend. Meanwhile, the remnants of a shattered government are trying their damnedest to keep Yorick alive, and desperately find a cure to the plague that destroyed half the population. But there are people after Yorick too, lots of people who want to see him dead, or in the hands of profiteers and foreigners. That is the story of Y the Last Man.

Yorick's story is a really engaging adventure, and the comic, while very adult is totally accessible. When friends of mine who don't read comics express even a slight interest in checking out something comic booky that isn't superheroes in spandex, and is written for an adult audience. The first two books I invariably give them are Y the Last Man and Fables. Well, we're still waiting on an announcement of a Fables movie, but we've finally got some news on Y.

Disturbia director DJ Caruso has signed on to helm the Carl Ellsworth written script. This of course has lead everyone to the rather obvious speculation that rising star Shia LaBeouf will be cast as Yorick, although I suspect it might be a bit early to call that one. That said, I really do like LaBeouf, and think he would make a fantastic Yorick. Who knows, maybe they'll announce something at Comic Con this weekend. For now though I'm happy to hear that this movie is going forward. While in a way I always thought that Y the Last Man might make for a better tv series, preferably on a channel like Showtime, than a movie, with the improbability of a show like Preacher already coming to the small screen I don't think I should be asking for too much. We are being blessed with a deluge of great material in development lately, at least as long as you know where to look. I'm very optimistic that this will work out beautifully. This is a great story and I'm really just excited to be able to share this excellent news.

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