Preacher fans take heart: There is life after HBO.
Two months after it was revealed the cable network had passed on a TV drama based on the Garth Ennis-Steve Dillon comic, The Hollywood Reporter has word that Columbia Pictures has picked up the rights to the popular Vertigo series.
Sam Mendes (Road to Perdition, American Beauty) will direct. Neal Moritz and Jason Netter, who are adapting Ennis’ The Boys for Columbia, also will produce Preacher. No writers have been attached.
The property has circled Hollywood for years. Before the planned HBO series was announced in 2006, Kevin Smith had toyed with producing a big-screen adaptation starring James Marsden.
Preacher, which ran for 66 issues from 1995 to 2000, helped to define DC’s Vertigo imprint.
October 29th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
It can’t be done properly as a movie, unless it’s spelled out as a series of films.
And even then, it’s better off adapted as an adult non-network TV series.
October 29th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Sam Mendes? Sam Mendes?!? The man who made “American Beauty” and “The Road to Perdition”? Okay, those are good flicks, but I see nothing that would indicate that he has any feel for the vulgar, earthy tone of Preacher. Weird choice.
October 29th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Honestly, I’d rather see Preacher done by Sam “Road to Perdition” Mendes than Mark “Ghost Rider” Steven Johnson.
October 30th, 2008 at 4:10 am
I wonder if this means Kate Winslet as Tulip.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:20 am
This is great news. Would prefer a series though.
Kate Winslet as Tulip would be great too!
Dec.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:09 am
His stage work, like his production of Cabaret, would definitely indicate it.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:44 am
won’t work
October 30th, 2008 at 11:07 am
That movie played more like “Road to PREDICTION”.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Enjoy the veal!
October 30th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
also think Preacher would work best as show….however if they’re going to do it in movie format, I’d say you could have a pretty good 1st film by just adapting the first 4 issues of the series, and then going into the Angelville “All In The Family” arc. That way, if there is no second film, it leaves all the characters in a decent enough place to where a viewer doesn’t feel shortchanged. In my opinion, a 2nd film would cover the introduction of Starr and The Grail and end with War In The Sun. That leaves Jesse in a great place to start the 3rd and final film, and the film can end as the series does.
The shame in this method is that a lot of the character backstories will be diminished due to not moving the plot forward. In a TV show, you could take an episode here and there to show Tulip’s childhood, the Sain of Killers’ backstory, etc. but there’s so much plot to cover in approx. 7.5 hours of film that you can’t take any detours. Also, characters like Jesus Desade, the sex detectives, the vampire cult, etc. will have to be left out, as they don’t move forward the central plotline.
October 30th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I’ll be here all night.
October 31st, 2008 at 2:10 am
No way, no how, nuh-uh. The ONLY way to go was a serialized cable format so it could be done properly. Does anyone actually believe the MPAA, not to mention the Bible Belt, won’t pee their collective pants over a movie version of a comic book about a man out to kick God’s ass (not to mention a healthy dollop of brutality, incest, rape, mutilation, bestiality, castration-by-rottweiler, and the ugliest SOB ever to grace the earth) hitting theaters nation-wide? Oh, the horror of the moral decay of our society! Won’t SOMEBODY think of the children?!
October 31st, 2008 at 7:30 am
At least something is coming out of this. I for one will be happy to see PREACHER on any screen.
Everyone thought a movie based on WATCHMEN wouldn’t work either, yet everything we’ve all heard about that movie has been positive so far.
Leave it to fanboys to claim something won’t work years ahead of when a final product will even come out.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:56 am
“Leave it to fanboys to claim something won’t work years ahead of when a final product will even come out.”
…and be right 9 times out of 10.