MovieWeb carried out an interview with DJ Caruso (director of Disturbia and Eagle Eye), in which he provided some small status updates on adaptations Y: The Last Man and Dead Space. He also briefly responded to rumors of a film carrying on from TV show The Shield, but it’s rather inconsequential.

Y: The Last Man is a comic book written by Brian K. Vaughan (who has written for various comic series, and also for Lost), and Pia Guerra. It follows the exploits of a man and his pet monkey, who are seemingly the only male mammals left on Earth, after a mysterious virus hits the world’s population. The series is popular among comic book readers, and has been very well-received. Caruso himself was attached to direct an adaptation of the series as a trilogy, but this has fallen through:

“I love, love, love that project. I think the biggest problem for me was I saw it as a trilogy. I didn’t think that you could take Yorick’s story and put it in to a two-hour movie and do it justice. That was sort of the difference. I think that New Line, working with Warner Bros. in their new relationship, just felt reluctant thinking that we can’t leave this thing open. If you are familiar with the comic book you know it’s just mind-boggling. If you look at what my buddy Frank Darabont did with The Walking Dead you think, I don’t know is that the best thing for it? Because there is just so much great stuff, so no I’m not involved with that anymore. Although I wouldn’t rule it out completely. It’s one of those things where if someone came back to me and said, okay we believe in your vision of the movie, then I would definitely jump back in but I don’t anticipate that happening. It’s a tough screenplay to lick and we had some very good writers. But it was like you had to convince the studio that this movie could stand alone on its own. But at the same time there would be unresolved issues ultimately with what happens to Yorick and how it all ties together. It’s really tough. If someone came back to me today and said they would love for me to jump in and do this the way I wanted to do it, I would. But I just feel like it’s too much for one screenplay. I’m not involved with that now.”

Y: The Last Man is high up on my “to-read” list, but I didn’t think that Disturbia and Eagle Eye were good enough to warrant me wishing DJ Caruso to helm a film adaptation of it. It wouldn’t have bothered me as much as the next project the director mentioned:

“Dead Space we are still trying to lick. It’s a great concept; it’s a great game. We’re dealing with it in sort of a prequel way to tell the story. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t really had time to hammer it out but it is something that I’m very interested in. I definitely don’t think it will be next (for me) but I would like to get to it in the future.”

Dead Space is a great game, yes. Does there need to be a film of it? Absolutely not. It borrows so much from other sci-fi movies that it just doesn’t seem necessary. It’s the experience of playing it, and having to react to the horror yourself, that makes it special.

Let alone telling it “in sort of a prequel way.” The mere word “prequel” strikes deathly despair into my heart, which in turn results in a large sigh – prequels are what came before the story you already chose to tell. The parts before, that you chose to leave out. There’s a reason the prequel part of the story was left out the first time round; we don’t need to see it. This isn’t necessarily the case all of the time, but new stories need to be told. Don’t keep going backwards.

And finally, Caruso says that he has heard nothing about a movie of The Shield (he directed four episodes of the show):

“I’ve never talked about the movie with them but I love Shawn Ryan and I love Michael Chiklis. The Shield by far is the best television experience ever and I loved being an early part of that show. I loved doing that show. I’ve been trying to work with Shawn ever since but I did get to work with Michael once. I love those guys. I would get back and shoot that because the great thing about The Shield was really just strapping on a camera and shooting the show. Vic Mackey is a timeless character and he’s such a flawed hero. That was the most beautiful thing about it.”

The Shield is my absolute favourite TV show (that I have watched the entirety of). However, it ended brilliantly, and as much as I’d love to see the story continue on the big screen, it would have to be treated with special care. It would be awful to have a movie tag-on that messed up the original series.

What are your views on Dead Space, or a potential movie of The Shield?

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DreamWorks Pictures has released the first teaser trailer for D.J. Caruso’s I Am Number Four which stars Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Teresa Palmer, Dianna Agron, Kevin Durand, Callan McAuliffe and Jake Abel.

The film follows John Smith (Pettyfer), a fugitive on the run from ruthless enemies sent to destroy him. Changing his identity, moving from town to town with his guardian Henri (Olyphant), John is always the new kid with no ties to his past. In the small Ohio town he now calls home, John encounters unexpected, life-changing events — his first love, powerful new abilities and a connection to the others who share his incredible destiny.

D.J. Caruso’s previous films include Disturbia and Eagle Eye (both starring Shia LaBeouf), so I Am Number Four could go either way. I think i’ll wait for the full trailer to see whether to spend money on it, but human-looking aliens with superhuman powers is an interesting concept.

I Am Number Four will be released 18 February 2011.

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Eagle Eye director DJ Caruso spoke to IESB and revealed that he would be interesting in directing the planned Thor movie for Marvel.

You know…I would definitely tackle it and I sort of wrestled with it before and I was always a fan of Thor growing up as a kid. I know that they [Marvel] have a script, but there’s something, there’s a fear I have about Thor and depending on what Thor story you want to tell, whether you want to bring Thor into the modern world or if you want to go back to Asgard and get the history of what’s happening between him and his brother and dad. That’s one I’ve always been interested in and it also would be, it would be a monumental task so, I could definitely see myself getting myself into that.

I have had some talks with Marvel about it but I have not seen a screenplay. It could be something that I am interested in.

Up until a few months ago Stardust director Matthew Vaughn was sat in the director’s chair and had written a script with Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend). However, Marvel predicted that if they filmed Vaughn’s version it would require a budget close to $300 million, so something had to give.

Thor currently has a release date of June 2010, which is a month or two after Iron Man 2 is expected to be released. Iron Man 2 has Jon Favreau back as director, but it currently has no script. If Marvel plan to meet their release date for Thor then they need to get hiring a director in the upcoming months, and DJ Caruso could be a good choice.

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Here we have a first look at Shia LaBeouf’s latest movie that yet again involves Steven Spielberg (no suprise there!) Eagle Eye sees LaBeouf re-team with his second favourite director, D.J. Caruso. Shia plays a young slacker whose overachieving twin brother mysteriously dies. When he returns home, both he and his single mother find that they have been framed as terrorists. Forced to become members of a cell that has plans to carry out a political assassination, they must work together to extricate themselves.

As with all movies that involve people being framed, the phrase ‘Somebody’s set me up‘ appears in the trailer. Very cliché. However, it does look interesting. Eagle Eye also has a great cast, consisting of Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson and Billy Bob Thornton.

Check it out below!

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