Preacher Movie News

For those of you who don’t know, director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) will be directing the movie adaption of the popular Vertigo comic Preacher. The 66-issue series, written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Steve Dillon is considered by many (including myself) to be one of the best comic series of all time. I say “one of the best” because of the existence of Sandman, Watchmen, Transmetropolitan, and a few others; which are all equally great in their own unique ways. Currently, John August is writing the script. For those of you who do not know who the hell this guy is, he wrote Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Go, and both Charlie’s Angels films. The only film that comes remotely close to Preacher is Go, and that’s only because of the violence and swearing, other than that, the two projects bear no resemblance.
I am still on the fence if this is the right guy to write the screenplay. Who knows? We might all be pleasantly surprised. I certainly hope so.
However, to be completely honest, I was hoping that the HBO series would stick. That would have been the perfect venue for a serial that ran for 5 and a half years.
So how will this story carry over to the big screen? Can you rally take a 2000 page story and condense it into a two hour film? Even Watchmen was nearly three hours and it only ran twelve issues. Let me know your thoughts on all this by sounding off on the comment board.

What about casting? No one has yet been named to portray these characters. Who are you picks? Let us know.

My picks:

Jesse Custer: Johnny Depp (I also think he would make a good John Constantine if someone decides to actually make an adaption that does the comic justice, or at least doesn’t butcher it until it’s unrecognizable.)

Tulip: Charlize Theron or any number of talented blonde actresses who are not afraid to play tough.

Cassidy: Colin Farrell (Farrell would essentially be playing an undead version of himself.)

Herr Starr: Not sure on this one.

The Saint of Killers: This chacter was always based on Clint Eastwood, but Eastwood is a bit old for the part, I think. I recently saw Don Swayze (Patrick’s brother) on an episode of True Blood and he looks a lot like the Saint, i.e., big, tall and ugly as hell. Same hook-like nose, too.

The inbred descendant of Jesus Christ (“He’s shitting in his hand, Brendel.”): D.J. Qualls

What do you think?

Sound off below…

Watchmen Frustration

Here’s something I don’t get:

The one image that is most closely related to Watchmen is the smiley face button with the spot of  The Comedian’s blood on it. Why was this particular item not made for the release of the film? There are T-shirts, books, magnets, and yes, even buttons, several of them. But not one is the most iconic image associated with the story. In fact, not a single item in support of the film bears the happy face image. Why is this? It would be the the cheapest thing to make and they could sell it for roughly 100 times the cost to make it. All I want is a smiley face button, you would figure that would be the easiest thing to find.

Not even the Internet yielded positive results. Except for ebay, but I don’t trust ebay since the images of the button for sale weren’t photos of the actual product. They were just like the picture to the left. Maybe I’m a bit paranoid, but that seems shady to me.

I don’t get it. Does  any one else have any thoughts or knowledge on this? I welcome any and all comments…

Review of Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter DVD

Those of you who have read the book know well the story of the sea captain driven mad after an attack by the demonic crew of The Black Freighter. In this animated retelling of the comic-book-within-a-comic-book, we have 300’s Gerard Butler as the voice of the sea captain, minus his inexplicable Scottish accent he used for his Spartan character in 300. The animation is great, and it is nice to experience the tale outside the realm of the larger Watchmen story. In a way, it pulls you deeper into the captain’s world as he slowly loses his grip on reality. In the book, the tale serves as reinforcement of what is happening in the main story, but is difficult to appreciate in and of itself. This DVD allows that to occur. The Tales of the Black Freighter (subtitled Marooned! in the graphic novel) clocks in at 26 minutes.

Also on the DVD is Under the Hood which is done in a documentary style. Not only does it have Hollis Mason (the first Nite Owl) talking about the formation of the Minuteman, but it also pulls other elements of the Watchmen mythology into play as well. For anyone who has seen the movie, this DVD takes you deeper in the the Watchmen world. The DVD has a behind the scenes look at both features, too. If you have seen the movie, but haven’t read the book, you will want to watch this feature (called Story within a Story: The Books of Watchmen) first so you understand it’s place in the story. Or better yet, buy the book to truly get the full Watchmen experience. Aside from this is a behind the scenes look at the animated Green Latern movie and chapter one of Watchmen, the motion comic. This feature is essentially screenshots of the orginal comic with sound effects and voice talent. The latter of which is the most horrendous example of acting I have ever witnessed. It’s almost as if they recorded these actors as they read the script for the first time.

And for some inexplicable reason, the voice of Laurie Juspeczyk/Silk Spectre 2 is performed by a guy.

Luckily this feature is not a main proponent of the DVD, but more of a little extra thrown in for our amusement (it amused me, at any rate). The DVD as a whole is a must for fans of the movie, and even more so for fans of the novel.

Scarlett Johanssen signed on For Iron Man 2

Yesterday, E! Online revealed that actress Scarlett Johannsen will be playing the role of deadly russian superspy Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. The Black Widow, in Iron Man 2. Mickey Rourke seems likely to play Marvel villian Whiplash. Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle have already signed on for the sequel to last Summer’s blockbuster.
In related news, Johanssen’s co-star from The Other Boleyn Girl, Natalie Portman, is set to co-star in 2010’s big screen adaption of Thor. However, it is unclear at this time which character she will be playing.

Alan Moore Talks Watchmen

Alan Moore talking about his graphic novel, Watchmen, back in 2007…

Why so Similar? Batman Trailer Versus The Dark Knight Trailer

Watch the split-screen video below and see how similar the trailers for the original Batman (With Jack as The Joker) and The Dark Knight actually are. The audio for The Dark Knight is used, and it fits the Batman trailer to a tee. Really weird. Enjoy.