Every aspect of this has got us very excited.
While he has two new movies hitting Irish cinemas this week – famine epic Black 47 and heist thriller American Animals are both due for release on Friday, 7 September – Barry Keoghan is already hard at work on his next major project.
How do we know this? Well, because we asked him!
In the lead-up to the release of American Animals, we were lucky enough to sit down with Barry and talk about that movie, but we also had to bring up the new TV show he had (at the time) just been announced to be working on, simply titled Y.
The second we brought it up, Keoghan’s face lit up and he got very obviously excited to talk briefly about the project:
“Yeah, Diane Lane… Melina, yeah, Melina is so cool. I kick off on that in August, so I have to start prepping, read the graphic novels, because I never read them. I mean, that is fun homework to do, getting to read the graphic novels!”
You can see that bit of the conversation in the interview below from the 7:20 mark:
Diane Lane? “Melina”? Don’t worry if you’re confused, we’re going to clear it all up for you now.
The show is based on the hit graphic novel series Y: The Last Man, which centres on the story of Yorick (who will be played by Keoghan), the last man left on Earth following an apparent androcide, AKA the death of every male on the planet, and the subsequent search for the cause and any potential cure.
The novel series was published from 2002 to 2008, and almost immediately following its publication, Hollywood has been trying to adapt it.
Initially, it was lined up by director DJ Caruso (Disturbia, Eagle Eye) with Shia LaBeouf in the lead role, but he eventually walked away from the project, telling MovieWeb that “I didn’t think that you could take Yorick’s story and put it in to a two-hour movie and do it justice… I just feel like it’s too much for one screenplay”.
Next, it went to Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane, the ‘Playtest’ episode of Black Mirror), but he too eventually backed out when there was no clear way to squash Yorick’s story down to movie length.
Eventually realising what was needed to be done for the story to be told properly, US broadcaster FX picked up the rights and gave the story to Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049) to script. Behind the camera, Melina Matsoukas (episodes of Insecure and Master Of None, but most famous for Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ music video) would be on directing duties.
In front of the camera, Keoghan will be joined by Diane Lane (Unfaithful, Man Of Steel) as Yorick’s mother Senator Jennifer Brown, Imogen Poots (Green Room, Fright Night) as his sister Hero Brown, and Lashana Lynch (Brotherhood, Captain Marvel) as his bodyguard Agent 355.
So now everything is in place, pre-production has begun, and Barry Keoghan looks set to be the lead star in one of the biggest upcoming shows.
We’re just as excited about it as he is!
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