Y: The Last Man Fan Short Hints At What A Feature Film Could Be Like
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Brian K. Vaughn’s signature graphic novel was first released in 2002. The 60-issue run ended in 2008, and ever since fans of the post-apocalyptic series were hungry for a film or TV adaptation. There were rumors at one point that Steven Spielberg would produce a trilogy of films based on Y: The Last Man starring Shia LaBeouf, but as it turned out, Spielberg produced a few Transformers movies instead. The Y: The Last Man film may be stuck in development hell, but a team of filmmakers have put together a short film to show that it could actually happen.
Christian Cardona, a visual effects supervisor who has worked on Captain America: The First Avenger, Black Swan, and Fast Five, has written and directed a 21-minute short film following the events of the first trade paperback of Y: The Last Man.
The story follows the survivors of a worldwide plague that has killed (nearly) every male on the planet, leaving the world populated with only females. Only two males, a man named Yorick and his pet monkey, Ampersand, have mysteriously survived, although Yorick has no idea why. They travel the U.S. in disguise, searching for Yorick’s sister, Hero, and girlfriend, Beth. Along the way, they are met by a group of hostile women called the Daughters of the Amazon who want to finish the job the plague started and kill Yorick, but a black-ops soldier simply called 355 is sent to protect him.
The short film is very ambitious and serves as a proof of concept that Y: The Last Man could work on the big screen. It’s almost like Neill Blomkamp’s effort with his short film Alive in Joberg or Dan Trachtenberg of the Totally Rad Show‘s short film Portal: No Escape.” Although this film is a bit crude, with almost cringe-worthy acting, the short film Y: The Last Man Rising features some pretty impressive special effects and is almost seamless when it incorporates found footage.
Hopefully a movie studio like Warner Bros. (the parent company of Vertigo Comics, which published Y: The Last Man) will eventually make a film or TV adaptation. Consider this short film to be a calling card for Christian Cardona and his producer, Kent King, who plays 355 in the short, to bring this beloved graphic novel to the big screen.
