Despite the attachment of director D.J. Caruso and the rumored involvement of "Transformers" actor Shia LaBeouf, "Y: The Last Man" still has a ways to go before its big-screen debut.
In 2008, Caruso admitted that adapting the comic books has proven "really tough," while LaBeouf cast some doubt on his own attachment to the project just last year. But that doesn't mean you have to sit around waiting for the film to get made while all the men in the world drop dead — at the very least, you can wait with some interesting reading material.
Over the weekend, io9 linked to an early draft of "Y: The Last Man" written by Brian K. Vaughan himself. While the script is no longer available at My PDF Scripts, other online venues have posted Vaughan's draft, a screenplay that makes some significant departures from the source material.
So, what's our slightly spoiler-filled take on the screenplay?
One of the script's greatest changes involves Yorick Brown's girlfriend, Beth. At the outset of the Vertigo Comics series, Yorick begins a heartfelt proposal to Beth via telephone just as the man-killing plague sweeps across the planet. In Vaughan's script, however, Yorick and Beth have a face-to-face moment before she leaves to catch a flight. The outbreak hits while she's on the plane; in the books, she's already in Australia.
As a result of this change, the stage is set for a resolution to Yorick and Beth's relationship by the end of the movie, as opposed to at the end of the character's world-spanning adventure seen in the Vertigo series. That's not the only departure involving Beth's character — there are some other big ones that I won't spoil for you here.
There are other changes, too, including some character deaths and some character removals. Certain events from the books are rearranged to fall in the first film, but most of the main beats are rooted in Vaughan's comics. Some changes are a bit jarring, perhaps even drastic, but the spirit of the story is still very faithful to the source material — ultimately, that's what matters the most to me.
While Vaughan's take isn't reported to be the film's current screenplay, there's still enough here to get an idea of how "Y: The Last Man" might play out when (or if) it finally arrives in movie theaters. As long as Agent 355 gets to kick some serious butt — as she does in Vaughan's script — I'll be satisfied.
Tell us what you think of Vaughan's early "Y: The Last Man" screenplay in the comments section and on Twitter!