The biggest question that must be asked about an adaptation of Brian K Vaughn and Pia Guerra’s Y The Last Man comic book is how do you fit it all into a movie? The story, about aplague which kills all males on Earth except for Yorick Brown and his helper monkey Ampersand, stretches over the course of 60 issues which span almost five years of time. While the story has some meandering and digressions, there’s a thick story to tell, one which could work in two hours but wouldn’t have the same scope.

It turns out that DJ Caruso, the guy attached to direct the film, feels the same way. He sees the story as a trilogy, with the first film covering the first 14 issues (does he mean the first ten? The first 14 puts the plot smack dab in the middle of the series’ third storyline, which [spoilers] involves a trio of astronauts in Earth orbit – two of whom are men. The tenth issue ends with the reveal of their existence, and that would be a killer cap to the first film). He’s also excited about the movie from a thematic point of view, which is always music to these movie snob ears: “For me, thematically, the most important thing and the reason I want to do this is … I don’t want to say it’s the end of the innocence, but it’s actually a man-child who has to become a real man now,” Caruso tells USA Today. “I think it’s a really simple, beautiful theme, but at the same time, the movie’s really pop-culture entertainment.”

Shia Labeouf is currently attached to play Yorick in the film, which would continue the relationship between Caruso and the star of his Disturbia and Eagle Eye. I like Shia a lot, but I do think that someone like Justin Long might be my personal choice for the role; Yorick could use Long’s goofiness and the role could give him a chance to be a little more serious than most of his recent movies have allowed.