Well, seems that HBO is no longer interested in making a Preacher adaption, but it looks like it might make it to the silver screen after all...
Quote:
Just as fans were slowly accepting the fact that “Preacher” — Garth Ennis and Steve Dillion’s highly-controversial comic series that took on everything from organized religion to shady government agencies — was DOA at HBO, along comes news that the option has once again been picked up, this time by Columbia Pictures, who intends to make the property into a full-length feature film. A “Preacher Feature,” if you will (ba-dum-dum!).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Columbia has picked up the option and pegged Sam Mendes to direct. Neal Moritz’s Original Films banner will produce alongside Kickstart Prods.’ Jason Netter.
“Preacher,” a longtime member of the “Impossible to Film” club (along with former member, “Watchmen”) has had a storied history of big studios picking up the option and quickly discovering that, for various reasons, the property was either too epic or too violent for film. Mark Steven Johnson, who’d been rumored to be onboard as director of the HBO series, claimed HBO execs were concerned about the over-the-top brutality of the original comic series and asked it to be toned down, to which Johnson disagreed. Kevin Smith’s View Askew got as far as the casting stage (with James Marsden rumored to play the lead role of Rev. Jesse Custer) until the deal inevitably fell through.
Currently, there are no screenwriters attached to the project, but according to THR, Mendes — who already has some geek-cred under his belt with his work on 2002’s “Road to Perdition” — will be on the prowl for potential writers as he wraps up post-production on “Revolutionary Road,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
http://splashpage.mtv.com/2008/10/29/co ... to-direct/I quite liked Road to Perdition and really enjoyed Jarhead, fingers crossed he will be able to make a good adaption. Having said that, I still don't know how you could transfer something like Preacher to a film without changing it significantly or really cutting it's guts out.
The main problems are the very controversial nature of the story, the brutal violence, swearing and the like, and the downright bizarre characters like Arseface, who work fantastic in the comic, but are going to be very hard to replicate.
Not to mention they will almost certainly have to cut out some important stuff to make it a viable length, Jesse's father, New Orleans, Saint of Killers' history etc.
I remain cautiously optimistic...