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…

Alan Moore Talks Watchmen

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