In a new interview with Comic Book Resources, veteran comics and TV writer Brian K. Vaughan has revealed that the rights to his award-winning series Y: The Last Man will revert back to he and co-creator Pia Guerra for the first time in years if the long-dormant film adaptation doesn’t move forward very soon.Asked about the project, which was last attached to director Dan Trachtenberg, Vaughan told CBR, “It’s my understanding that the rights to Y: The Last Man will revert back to co-creator Pia Guerra and me for the first time in a decade if the planned New Line adaptation doesn’t start shooting in the next few months, so I expect there will be some Y news in 2014 either way.”The phrasing of that quote, along with Vaughan’s recent success with CBS’s Under the Dome and the many potential suitors Y has had over the years, makes it sound likely that if New Line doesn’t get a production moving, someone else may option the project almost immediately after it reverts.If it happens, this would be the second such reversion of an anticipated comics property in recent months, after Daredevil reverted to Marvel in 2013 when director Joe Carnahan couldn’t get his take on the character ready to shoot in a short enough window and Fox allowed the rights to lapse rather than rush it into production. The Fantastic Four film, currently expected to go in front of cameras in March, has been delayed for so long that if they don’t begin production as planned, they will face about a six-month window before their deadline expires as well, according to industry estimates. That’s not an unfamiliar situation for Fox, though, who made one movie and fast-tracked another to prevent losing the FF rights.Picking up the rights to smaller, creator-owned comics and graphic novels has become a popular trend among movie studios who are all looking for the next The Walking Dead and willing to try to develop projects like Rust, Feeding Ground, Stuff of Legend and Rachel Rising in the hopes of finding it. Generally the rights aren’t all that expensive and the studios understand that they’re buying into a fiercely devoted fan base who will help raise awareness of the project along the way. Not many such projects have yet made it all the way through to completion, and it may be interesting to see whether the continued success (or not) of superhero films over the next few years has a discernible impact on whether these non-mainstream, non-superhero comics properties actually get made.Daredevil will be a TV series from Marvel Studios and Netflix next year. Fantastic Four is expected in theaters from Fox around the same time. Y: The Last Man‘s status is yet to be determined.
