BREAKING: Dan Trachtenberg to Direct Y: THE LAST MAN

last-manIn some exciting news on the comics movie front, Deadline is reporting that Dan Trachtenberg will be directing the film adaptation of the Vertigo Comics series Y: The Last Man, written by Brian K. Vaughan (currently writing Saga) with art by Pia Guerra.

This was a surprise to us for a couple of reasons. First, all indications were that nothing was happening with Y: The Last Man on the film front. Second, Dan is actually a buddy of ours, as the co-host of the defunct Totally Rad Show, we spent many a years at parties, events and other things related to both having shows on Revision3. Considering that and the amount of time I’ve spent with Dan talking about his aspirations at directing, I can assure Y: The Last Man fans that he’s a great choice for this and will do the best job he can. I can’t wait to see what comes from this.

So let’s all congratulate Dan and keep our eyes on more news about the development of the Y: The Last Man movie!

 

iFanboy_TRS

iFanboy and the Totally Rad Show crew in 2009. Dan Trachtenberg on the Far Right.

 

Comments

  1. Excellent news. Good for Dan. He seems like a genuinely good guy and his portal short was excellent. I assume this contributed to TRS ending.

    • I agree. This must have had something to do with it. On a personal note Dan grew up around me and his mom dropped off TRS stuff at my LCS. Always good to hear a local guy do good.

    • Hmmm, not sure how I feel about this.
      Dan Trachtenberg seems like a great guy, I used to watch TRS all the time, I was so happy when they used one of my viewer submitted intros for the show.
      But I’m not sure he’s an accomplished enough director for this material, I love the source material and was hoping it would be tackled by someone with a bigger portfolio. Personally, I think Rian Johnson would be a great choice.
      I mean Dan could be good, his Portal short was technically competently made but I didn’t think it did anything amazing.

    • The fact that he made an interesting and faithful short video based on a video game without money from a major studio doesn’t count?

    • It wasn’t that interesting or faithful in my opinion.
      It had none of humor of the game, which is fine because it was never meant to be an “adaptation”.
      Technically it was great, he managed to get really good production values out of the budget he had but, considering this is a studio film and he’s going to have a professional crew, production values are not what I’m worried about, having experience with long form, complex material is.
      The Portal short didn’t really have intimate character development or use any groundbreaking film-making techniques, that’s fine for what it was because it wasn’t the point, but it also doesn’t fill me with hope. I just wish they went with someone with more experience.
      It’s hard, because I love the guy but he hasn’t proved himself as a feature film director yet, hopefully this will give him the chance to do that but it’s a huge risk starting with something so big and complex.
      Even the Wachowskis made Bound before moving onto The Matrix.

    • @kzap: I don’t know much about Dan but I find Rian Johnson to be an equally odd choice. I haven’t seen Looper yet but I didn’t care for either of this first two films and saw nothing in either one in tone or style that lead me to believe he’d be able to deliver an interesting Y adaptation.

      I think either Gareth Edwards or Jeff Nichols would be a great choice for Y. But as I said I don’t know much about Dan so he might be a great choice too!

    • @USPUNX
      Looper is great you should check it out. I was thinking in terms of if they wanted to go with a relatively new name, he’s at least got some feature films under his belt (and one in the sci-fi genre) unlike Dan but both of your choices are good too.
      Duncan Jones may perhaps be even better.

    • @kzap: Oh, Duncan Jones, great idea! Id’ love to see what he’d do with Y. Man, there really are some great young names in the sci-fi film world.

      And I’m dying to see Looper, I’ll probably just go out and but it on Blu-Ray this weekend.

    • @USPUNX
      Yea there are so many great names out there.
      I’m not saying Dan Tranchtenberg definitely will be bad, I know he really loves the material but I don’t think he’s done enough to prove he can handle a production of this scale.
      I’m also worried as to why the studio chose to go with an unknown name, do they not have faith in the project? Was it to cut costs? Or were they really that impressed with his enthusiasm that they hired a first time director something this big?
      I want the last one to be true but I think Hollywood execs are too cynical for that to be the reason.
      Part of me is glad we’re finally getting an adaption (and by one of the people who introduced me to the series) but another part of me would rather wait for it to be done well.
      But then the decisions already been made so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

    • I think Dan will do a good job. Everyone has a first film, not every one is crappy. It’s not going to be a big budget effects movie, it’s a post apocalyptic road trip. And it’s not like the guy has never been on a set before, he’s been making commercials for a few years now. Have faith.

  2. Totally rad

  3. Great news. Really looking forward to seeing what Dan will do with this story.

  4. Wowee! Good for Dan! I guess that Portal film made the right waves.

  5. That’s super-cool! Hope this means we get some exclusives 🙂 This seems to be the time to make it (or them), hope Y joins the ranks of the great comic book films.

  6. That’s wonderful! I love that guy.

  7. Awesome! Dan becomes a man!

  8. DAN BECOMES A MAN!!! ..dan becomes a man 🙂 So awesome…its weird that it has only been 3-4 years since the good ole’ days of rev3 .

  9. Great new, to hear on both fronts. Congrats to him.

  10. Congrats to Dan. I wonder if this why TRS ended…

  11. Never checked out TRS. Or the Portal short. So … congrats?

    Whoever delivers a good Y adaptation is A-Ok in my book. I feel it would work better as a premium network show, but I’ll take what I can get.

    Looking forward to seeing it take shape!

  12. Sounds great, I love the idea of a relatively “unknown” taking the reigns. You can never underestimate the never-say-‘die’ scrappyness of a guy with something to prove. Hell, that’s what gave us the original Star Wars!

    Congrats to Dan!

    • Usually the studios take on an unknown or first time director because they know they can walk all over them and they won’t fight back. This is especially true for big franchise projects with a lot at stake and where the production company just want something bland and risk free.
      It’s sad but true, when David Fincher did try to get his own way on Alien3 they kicked him off the project and re-edited his footage into a different film.

    • @kazp: Not sure I agree with that. Let’s look at some recent big franchise projects.

      Avengers-Joss Weadon
      Batman-Chris Nolan
      Superman-Bryan Singer
      Man of Steel-Zach Snyder
      Spiderman-Sam Rami
      John Carter-Andrew Stanton
      Iron Man-John Favreau
      Captain America-Joe Johnson
      Thor-Kenneth Branagh
      James Bond (Casino Royale)-Martin Campbell
      Pirates of the Caribbean-Gore Verbinski
      X-Men-Bryan Singer
      X-Men: First Class-Matthew Vaughn

      Just to name a few. Now not all of these guys are household names necessarily but they are all very experienced directors. I’m sure their are examples out there to the contrary but it seems to me the norm is much more the bring in an experienced director to launch a big franchise, not a first timer.

    • Yes IF the studio care about the franchise, if they just want to cash in on a name (like a video game adaption) or create just another sequel to a franchise they bring in someone they can walk all over or someone who they know can deliver something bland and to budget Paul W.S. Anderson.

    • @kzap : Agreed. The suits do tend to interfere much to the detriment of a project, so we’ll see. That said, I do wish
      Mr. Tracentenberg all the best.

    • Yeah Paul W.S. Anderson is a great example. How he’s made as many RE films as he has boggles the mind. I guess my thinking was a property like Y falls more into the category of film types I mentioned as opposed to a quick, video game cash in. But who knows, either way I hope this turns out well because I do love Y.

    • It could be either, remember Jonah Hex was a comic book adaption handled by a first time live-action director (although he’d done an animated film before) for all I know he could have been a massive fan of the source material too.
      I hate to be cynical but I don’t want to get my hopes up either.

  13. It’s really kind of the most amazing news, when someone you know, like, and admire gets a chance to do something this big. Dan’s going to do a great job. Can’t wait to see what he does with this!

  14. This series (as well as Powers), were the gateway drugs that re-introduced me to world of comics. I fall in the camp that this project is better served via the 13 episode, cable television route a la Walking Dead. However, this cat (whom I do not know) seems to be a quality candidate.

    Portal: No Escape (Directed by Dan Trachtenberg)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4drucg1A6Xk

    Things this circa 6 min short showed me.
    Interesting camera angles
    Nice use of visuals without dialogue to convey emotions
    Character empathy (on my part)

    Looking forward to the next set of news on this project.

  15. Very excited for DannyT and for us because we should get a good take on Y:The Last Man.

  16. This is a complex series that’s really going to be a difficult one to adapt into a 2 hour movie. The fact that there is a first time director that very little is known about doesn’t inspire confidence either.

    • Quite a lot of great films have been made by first time directors, I’d say as long as the script is right it shouldn’t necessarily be a problem about the director. However, I agree that getting that script right is going to be very hard. The narrative arc of the story, its episodic nature and downbeat ending wouldn’t seem to translate well to movies. However, people have translated much harder works with great success in the past so who knows!

  17. I don’t know how I feel about this. I’d much rather see it as a TV series.

  18. This is amazing news. I miss TRS like crazy, but I’m down with this. I remember Dan singing Y: The Last Man’s praises all the way back in the Geekdrome days.

  19. at last i can rest easy knowing that finally, somewhere out there in the world there is a director doing the best job he can.

  20. This is great news. I know Dan is a big fan of the original material.

  21. I like Dan a lot from watching TRS. I think he definitely has the enthusiasm and energy to pull this off. I bet he’s feeling the pressure right about now lol Go Dan!

  22. Congrats to Dn on this opportunity. Hopefully this time the movie actually gets made. I have been burned one time Romany getting excited or a project thy never happens (Preacher on HBO anyone?) I will get excited when I see a trailer.

  23. Any adaptation that is true to the book I’m sure will be excellent but I see this working better as a television series.

  24. Well, I don’t know anything about him, but I’m excited to hear the film will be getting made.

    Almost more importantly than who is directing though, I’d like to know who is writing the screenplay? Is it already written?

  25. I’m sure he’s a fine filmmaker, but…is this something we really want? I can’t see how they could possible do the material justice in such a short time frame.

  26. Right on…I hope this is the start of bigger things for Dan. He has a lot of heart and will do a hell of a job I am sure.