DJ Caruso Spills the Beans On Y: The Last Man

Comingsoon.net Just did a huge interview with D.J. Caruso about the DVD release for Eagle Eye. Somewhere in the middle they were able to tackle him on my most anticipated movie for the next 3 years, Y: The Last Man.

CS: You can say that again. I do want to ask about “Y: The Last Man,” which I know you talked about in September and you mentioned you’re still working on the script. I talked to David Goyer maybe three or four years ago, and it’s been a while in development.

Caruso: Yeah, it’s been a while. I think it’s one of those that the source material is fantastic stuff, it’s great, but it’s a tough one to lick into getting into a screenplay. I’ve tried to feel like it’s a trilogy of movies and I think everyone sort of agrees, but at the same time, just getting the first movie right and getting the right beats and knowing what to put in, it’s been really tough. You have great minds like David Goyer and you’ve got Carl Ellsworth and you’ve got Brian K. Vaughn, and I’m working with them to just kind of crack it and get it down. And we’re almost there. I know it’s a slow process, but I think eventually we’ll get it. We’re going to get it and we’ll get it right, but we had a pretty good breakthrough a couple weeks ago in the final act, and hopefully we’ll get there.

CS: I was really curious about the trilogy aspect because when you make a movie, you’ll want to make sure that the first movie has a suitable ending, or else you end up like “The Golden Compass,” where if you leave a movie open-ended…

Caruso: Yeah, and this movie, I don’t think the movie so much will be left open-ended, it’s just a matter of, if you’re familiar with the source material, there’s so much great stuff and he meets so many great characters but it’s over the course of a long period of time. When you’re telling the story—yes, the fanboys and all the people who love it will go and see it—but if you’re just seeing the movie from a filmgoers’ perspective and you’re not familiar with the source material, you have to make sure you make the movie that they understand and they love, too. Like I said, it’s been more difficult than I thought but we’re getting close.

CS: One good thing is that since the comic series is over, you at least know where the story goes. Are you at least trying to have some sort of outline for the other two movies while you’re writing the first one?

Caruso: No, we’re not really outlining but you know, it’s nice when you know where it ends. It actually thematically helps you as a filmmaker and a storyteller, if you then treat it as one piece of work then you kind of know where you end and what the theme of the piece is now. It really helped with seeing closure and what is this all about? I thought the ending was really good and really compelling, but if you take the first movie and then you (put) Yorick into that ending, I think then it doesn’t feel like you can accomplish that in one movie. You can’t accomplish in that one movie.

CS: Do you think this might be your next movie or do you think you’ll try to make another movie in between?
Caruso: Well, you know, I think we’ll probably do one in between if we don’t get the script going soon, but we’ll see. I have not found a movie that’s there yet. I just think if we turn in “Y” after the holiday and it came in and got going quick then it would be up for sure. I’m open to it, but I need to eventually make a living.

Check out the rest of the interview HERE