Here's rather disappointing news: Shia LaBeouf, in an interview with Wizard magazine, suggested that he might not star in Y: The Last Man after all. He's been linked to the property for a good couple of years now, with production inching ever closer as director DJ Caruso and writer Carl Ellsworth boiled down an epic, globe-spanning tale into something movie-sized.
The story is based on the intensely smart Brian K. Vaughn comics, and focuses on Yorick, a young guy who finds that he's the last man alive on Earth after an instantaneous plague kills every male, and every male animal, on the planet except for Yorick and his pet monkey Ampersand. He is instantly a target for pretty much everyone: Israeli soldiers, man-hating Amazons, geneticists looking for a solution, politicians and weirdos.
LaBeouf looked like good casting for the role, but now says, "You take Sam [Witwicky, from Transformers] and you put a monkey on his shoulder. I don't know if it's that big a differential. It seems like he's the ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation again.
He added, "I'm not willing to make that movie currently, and may be too old to play the role by the time it does come around."
Whether this means that he's definitely out remains to be seen; perhaps an ace script will lure him back. But if he is out, there have got to be other early 20-something guys who can do the role justice. We need someone a bit awkward, a die-hard romantic with a streak of defiance, someone a little goofy and a little heroic. Jay Baruchel maybe? However they cast it, this is a heck of a story that deserves a chance on the big screen.