Early Buzz: Brian K Vaughan's Post-Apocalyptic Heist Screenplay The Vault Is "Ocean's 11 Meets Children Of Men/2012"

I usually don't write about projects that don't yet have a buyer, but I'm a big fan of comic book writer turned screenwriter Brian K. Vaughan, and have been watching his every move.

Vaughan is best known for the critically acclaimed Y: The Last Man Series and various other comic books including Runaways. Vaughan joined the television show LOST as a co-producer and writer mid-way through Season 3, but left last year. His presence could be felt though the pop culture-infused dialogue (who would win in a race, superman or the flash? Hurley writing Empire Strikes Back. Hurley reading a foreign issue of Brian's Y: The Last Man at the airport) and some of the series' epic plot twists and cliffhangers. Vaughan has been working to invade Hollywood, writing screenplays including: a twist on the King Arthur legend titled Roundtable setup at Dreamworks,  developing his Marvel comic Runwaways, a big screen adaptation of his Vertigo comic series Y: The Last Man which has been stalling over at New Line/Warner Bros, and an adaptation of his comic Ex Machina is in development over at BenderSpink.

So what is he up to now? The tracking boards are abuzz about Vaughan's latest spec screenplay The Vault, which CAA has been supposedly shopping to various studios this week. More details after the jump.

The story is a heist film set in a future where the world's crops have been wiped out by a plague:

"A post-apocalyptic heist movie involving the real-world Doomsday Vault in the Arctic, The Vault is Ocean's 11 meets 2012/Children of Men. When a terrifying plague destroys crops and causes starvation on a global scale, the world's greatest thief must break into the extremist-controlled Doomsday Vault to steal the one seed that could prevent the extinction of the human race."

Sounds like a very interesting set-up, and we all know the awesomeness that happened last time that Vaughan wrote a story set after a global plague (ie Y: The Last Man). I'm sure we'll hear that one of the major studios snaps this script up by next week.