If you’ve hung around CHUD long enough, chances are you’re very familiar with the name Mark Wheaton or, as he’s known around these parts – Smilin’ Jack Ruby.  Since his days at CHUD he’s gone on to be a successful screenwriter and a successful self-publisher of all manner of literature (take a look at his adventures in self-publishing on the Kindle – it’s a fascinating read).  And, as we found out last year, one of those pieces of literature – Sunday Billy Sunday: A Memoir, which deals with a Texas Preacher who slowly goes mad after witnessing what he perceives to be a miracle of God – is getting the bump to cinema status, with Mark handling the adaptation (natch) and directing duties going to Music Video director Morna Ciraki, making her feature debut here.  Pre-production being what it is, Ciraki and her crew put together a little concept trailer to illustrate mood and give people a taste of what’s in store.  Dig it:

Pretty great, yeah?  After seeing it, I shot Mark an e-mail to check in on the overall progress of the film – here’s what he had to say:

“Right now, the project is being sent out to a number of financing entities.  I incorporated the last of Ciraki’s notes into the script at the beginning of the month just as she finished color correcting the footage from the Jackson Lake shoot this past April.  Morna took on the shoot as a test run to play with different ways to get across the mood and feel she wanted to go for in the feature.  She was also looking to assemble a production team and let everybody mesh before getting down to the rigors of a longer shoot.  Also, given the controversial nature of the story, the fact that much of it takes place in broad daylight, and the fact that this would be her feature directorial debut, she wanted some scenes to show people in advance.  The trailer is assembled from what I’d estimate to be about ten minutes of footage showing scenes from across the film.  They’ve been posting up video and all sorts of behind-the-scenes stuff at sundaybillysunday.tumblr.com along the way.”

Nice.  Obviously we’ll keep you guys up to date on the status of the film as it goes through production.  In the meantime, if you haven’t read the book you should.  It’s fantastic, managing to be both horrifying and gruesome while still being poignant and non-exploitive.  And, as luck would have it Mark has the Kindle version for free on Amazon right now (as well as the Kindle versions of a LOT of his other works – Bones is another that I would highly recommend) so go read up, you guys.

Source | The Wrap