Sam Mendes to Direct Preacher!

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=50104

Source: The Hollywood Reporter
October 29, 2008

Columbia Pictures has picked up the film rights to Preacher, the popular 1990s Vertigo series, for an adaptation to be directed by Sam Mendes (upcoming Revolutionary Road).

The Hollywood Reporter says Neal Moritz and his Original Films are producing with Kickstart Productions' Jason Netter.

Created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, "Preacher," which ran from 1995-2000, told the story of a down-and-out Texas preacher possessed by Genesis, a supernatural entity conceived by the unnatural coupling of an angel and a demon.

Given immense powers, the preacher teamed with an old girlfriend and a hard-drinking Irish vampire and set out on a journey across America to find God -- who apparently had abandoned his duties in heaven -- and hold him accountable for his negligence.

The project was previously set up as a one-hour series at HBO but was put into turnaround. Mark Steven Johnson wrote a pilot which Howard Deutch was attached to direct.

A previous movie version, to have been produced by Kevin Smith's View Askew, among others, got to the casting stage, with James Marsden attached for the title role and a reported budget of $25 million.

 

[SoulManX]

Why does Warner let other movie studios pick up DC's properties

Lord knows we need another Watchmen studio batter

 

[french joker]

what a bad director for such a great comic

 

[SoulManX]

what a bad director for such a great comic

Not a fan of Sam i see

 

[CrimsonMist]

i dont think Preacher will work as a film, honestly. The characters are what made Preacher. From Jody and Arsface to Granma to Quinlan to Herr Starr. All the people in the story are what makes Preacher what it is. I actually found all the sub-stories more interesting than the main story. It's very character driven. They COULD do a trilogy, but i don't think they will. And even then, i don't think it would get everything.

the HBO series was it's best hope.

 

[Sawyer]

I'm not very familiar with Mendes, but he's probably a step up from Mark Steven Johnson...

 

[Lobo]

Cool. I hope it finally gets made.

 

[Kent]

I'm not very familiar with Mendes, but he's probably a step up from Mark Steven Johnson...

Oh come on...

- American Beauty
- Road to Perdition
- Jarhead

 

[deathshead2]

$100 bucks says this was all made possible by Watchmen. WB must have shown Columbia a screenin they must have thought it was awesome and then WB said "How would you like to make your very own watchmen"

If wm is huge I'm sure columbia will face track this movie.

 

[Sawyer]

Oh come on...

- American Beauty
- Road to Perdition
- Jarhead

Oh no. I know what he's directed, I've just not seen any of it.

 

[The Guard]

I love Sam Mendes. Not everything he does. But most of it is very well done. Looking forward to this.

 

[Ender Durden]

Preacher used to scare the crap ot of me as a kid. I remember skimming through the novels in Borders and the drawings were just really disturbing.

I wouldve prefered someone like Paul T. Anderson, There Will Be Blood had that definite since of creepiness and foreboding, something this movie should have, but im sure Mendes will definitely bring a great job too. American Beauty is one of my favorite movies.

 

[Doctor Jones]

American Beauty was fantastic so this sounds good. Thankfully a lesser known comic is in the hands of a qualified director.

 

[LastSunrise1981]

This is great news. I'm just wondering how they're going to pull this off? There are so many great stories to adapt and Preacher is one epic story that deserves to have all of it told. I think it works better as a television series and not as a film, you know?

Like I want to see the beginning of Jesse Custer, Saint of Killers, Cassidy, and so forth. I also want to see the story of Jesse's upbringing told on the big screen because after reading it you REALLY hate his grandmother, Jody, and the insane family who raised him.

Things like that really need to be told and remain faithful to the graphic novels. Here's hoping they actually manage to pull it off.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

Eh. Preacher has always been a comic series I wanted adapted to live action. But I am really not sure a film is a way to go just because there is so much to cover that it would need at least a trilogy to tell it properly. I think Sam Mendes is an awesome choice but I really do think it would have been better if it got the HBO series treatment.

 

[Joker]

The only way this series could work is as a TV show. There's too much content, and it's all needed to tell the story properly. Unless we're getting 10 movies, it won't work.

 

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