Brian K. Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man Finally Finds A Director

By Brent McKnight | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Here’s a bit of good news for comic book fans, or at least fans of movies about a man and his monkey. (And who doesn’t love that?) New Line Cinema has hired Dan Trachtenberg to direct the adaptation of cult favorite Y: The Last Man. Trachtenberg has a background helming commercials, but has garnered some attention recently with his 2011 short, Portal: No Escape, based on the video game Portal.

Y: The Last Man, the story of a man and his monkey, finally has a director.
Y: The Last Man, the story of a man and his monkey, finally has a director.

An adaptation of Y: The Last Man has been in the works for years, ever since New Line bought the rights in 2007, and has met with roadblocks that derailed the project at each and every turn. It has been pitched as a trilogy of films, and the idea of producing it as a weekly series was also bandied about for a time. Various actors, including Shia LeBeouf, have been attached. With New Line moving forward, the film seems like it may actually happen, and have found a forever home.

Based on the Eisner Award-winning series by Brian K. Vaughn (Saga, Ex Machina, and TV’s Lost) and Pia Guerra, the series is a post-apocalyptic story that follows the adventures of Yorick Brown, an amateur magician and the last man alive, and his monkey, Ampersand. As the series begins, a mystery disease kills every living mammal with a Y chromosome simultaneously, leaving Yorick and Ampersand as the only males left on the planet. After all the dudes die, some female survivors seek to maintain the established institutions of power, while others attempt to set up a new, matriarchal society.

Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia, both of Jericho fame, adapted the script from the 60-issue run. David S. Goyer (Batman Begins) is serving as producer, while Michael Disco and David Neustadter will oversee things for the studio.

You can check out Trachtenberg’s Portal: No Escape below.