Remember earlier this year when Brian K. Vaughan said the movie rights to his Y: The Last Man comics would revert back to him and co-creator Pia Guerra if New Line and director Dan Trachtenberg didn't start production soon on the planned adaptation? Well, that's exactly what has happened. A fan recently asked Trachtenberg about the project on Twitter, and he says the movie is officially dead.
Slash Film decided to contact Dan Trachtenberg, and he talked little about what his plans were for the movie, as well as his thoughts on a future Y: The Last Man film or television series.
On his vision for Y: The Last Man:
Truly- I was excited to make an ADVENTURE movie, with swashbuckle, that was fun and funny but had something to say. Which is something that is distinctly BKV. Having real, true, honest ,people stuff amidst the big, fun, action stuff. We were in many ways quite faithful to the comic, though some characters were combined and some events re-arranged and some brief moments of action we dug into to create bigger action/adventure sequences.
The script was essentially the first two trades. Taking inspiration from the original Star Wars (Episode 4)- we wanted to tell a complete story…but not the whole story. Hoping that, in success, we could get tell the rest of our serialized adventure.
Raiders of the Lost Ark was referenced a lot. Midnight Run and Big Trouble in Little China were referenced a lot. Willow and Ladyhawke I may have referenced a little too often…
On television possibly being a better fit for an adaptation of the comic:
Like everyone else who’s a fan of the series I had always wished it either remain in its comic book form. Or, if it must be made, a TV series would be the only thing that would suffice.
However, the “big screen” and the “small screen” has changed drastically since Y came out and I think so much of the great TV in our current “golden age” has been directly or indirectly inspired by Y the Last Man. I started getting excited about bringing to the BIG screen what we’ve been getting in TV so readily now— great characters, RELATIONSHIPS, world building and genre re-combination.
While it sucks we won't be getting a Y: The Last Man movie with Dan Trachtenberg behind the camera, I'm glad the rights are back with the creators. Maybe someday we'll get a film or television series based on the Eisner Award winning comics, but it's definitely not going to happen anytime soon.
Dan Trachtenberg is currently doing prep work on Bad Robot's VALENCIA, which will be his feature film debut.