A Life With Film

Sometimes I have thoughts that don't have to do with comic books, I swear. In any case, MTV Splashpage broke some big news today with Louis Leterrier, who has been in talks with producers to work on a big screen adaptation of the 2002 Vertigo series Y: The Last Man.

A Y: The Last Man adaptation has been in the works since 2007 with a few scripts and filmmakers falling through. Mostly, filmmakers are scared of the content. Y ran for 60 issues and was a sprawling story of a future Earth where every mammal with a Y chromosome (i.e. all males) were killed in one instantaneous event. The series chronicled the journey of Yoric Brown, the last man on Earth.

While a Y adaptation itself isn't exactly news, Leterrier speaking out about it is a little interesting. Leterrier is the french director who has brought action-fests such as The Incredible Hulk, the Clash of the Titans remake and most famously The Transporter series.

Leterrier wants to make a Y trilogy or television series, not a singular film. While I appreciate the thought Leterrier has put into Y, I have a few issues with him taking the helm.

Firstly, I don't know if the entirety of the Y series has to be told. I am a big fan of the series and I love it to pieces, but a lot of the side trips are extraneous. Whittling Y down to one film would force a lot of the fat to be cut and allow for the film to be even more powerful than the comic.

Secondly, I don't think Leterrier is the man for the job. Plain and simple. If his films have proved anything, it's that he can shoot an action scenes and that's something Y doesn't rely on. While many did like The Incredible Hulk, the strength was in the action and not so much in the character development and Y is about the characters. There are many currents running through Y and I just don't think that Leterrier could handle it.

There is only one man for the job and that man is Joss Whedon. He is a self-professed feminist, incredibly talented and a fervent supporter of the series. Not to mention, he might be the only screenwriter could adequately capture Yorick's English major nerd-speak. I know Whedon is busy with The Avengers, which he will knock out of the park, but the Y: The Last Man adaptation can wait for the perfect director.

{reference: Mtv Splashpage}