Now all the geek sites are going to want to cover the Revolutionary Road junket. See, that Sam Mendes’ next movie, and he’s just been announced as the director for the film version of Preacher. Everybody gonna want their Preacher scoop!
Columbia has picked up the rights to the excellent maxi-series, which is about a preacher who has the Word of God in him (he can make you do anything he tells you to do), his hit man girlfriend and his vampire best friend as they search for the Lord, who has vacated his seat in Heaven and abandoned his Creation. It’s pretty hardcore, occasionally blasphemous stuff. Oh, and the ghost of John Wayne is an occasional guest star.
The good news, I guess, is that Preacher is moving forward in a major way. The previous movie version had a budget of like 25 million, while this will surely be a major motion picture with lots of money thrown at it. It was also previously a potential HBO show.
The bad news is that Preacher is moving forward in a major way. I just don’t see a movie version doing justice to the sprawling narrative that Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon created. Sure, it’s adaptable, either as a single film or a series, but I fail to see the point. This is a point I’m willing (and hope) to cede in the future as more news about this project comes to light.
The worst news is that Preacher is moving forward with Sam Mendes in charge. First off, I don’t much like Mendes’ films – they’re second tier Oscar bait, glossy and forgettable. Preacher is like a David Allan Coe song writ large, and I don’t think Mendes has the vulgarity to properly adapt a work that features a man who fucks a woman made out of meat products.
That said, I do like the idea of a Brit handling the film. Preacher is, at it’s heart, an outsider’s fantasy version of the US, and having a non-American direct makes sense. But I’d rather it be someone like Matthew Vaughn who, even with Kick-Ass in production, is still looking at more comic book projects. He has the grit and vulgarity to make this work.
Of course maybe Mendes has been just waiting to unleash his inner degenerate. We’ll be following this one closely.
26 comments
Aren't all women made out of meat?
Funny thing about Preacher – I abandoned reading the series in the middle, because I felt that it had strayed far from it's main point. A friend insisted I finish the series, and it was then that I realized that only when Ii thought it was getting away from the main point, was it actually getting to it's main point. And the ending is so perfect it's almost too perfect. I doubt any film adaptation will suffer from this problem, though. Oh, and let the fat jokes… begin.
"That said, I do like the idea of a Brit handling the film. Preacher is, at it's heart, an outsider's fantasy version of the US, and having a non-American direct makes sense."
…so is Judge Dredd and look at the tragic mess Danny Cannon and Stallone made of that.
Don't even bother making this if Arseface isn't included.
"and I don't think Mendes has the vulgarity…" EXACTLY. Mendes HAS to go further than what Alan Ball is with True Blood. I hope he isn't looking at that as a bench mark.
They ought not to attempt to adapt the entire series into one big, three hour movie. That would suck big dicks. Maybe go with a 6 or 12 or twenty issue arc, wherever it seems to end naturally and in a manner that is satisfactory for audiences; then, if possible, tell the rest of the story in a sequel or multiple sequels (assuming that this blasphemous story would make big enough box office–but then again, if it's really good, it could sell well on DVD or overseas). Devin, Mendes is an enormous step in the right direction. I mean, c'mon, this was almost adapted by Mark Steven Johnson. That would've been a disaster.
Road to Perdition was a much better film than comic. I think this is a good thing.
This REALLY needed to be and HBO or Showtime series – even if it was low-budget. A low budget series (though well-written and cast) would work MUCH better than ANY single film adaption could.
I fucking hate Preacher with a passion and I don't see how a movie could be any better or worse than the very-occasionally-tolerable comic book. I'm serious here, the only guys would get it right would be the Farrellys in self-conscious 90s-action throwback mode.
devin, you are such an asshole…do you remember a little film called "jarhead", a movie you gave a VERY favorable review to a couple of years ago? How can you not say that the director of a film where a character pukes up sand to the tune of "something in the way" by nirvana, has any vulgarity? Just beacuse this site fucking detests american beauty (which i dont understand) doesnt mean that the rest of mendes films are akin to his first feature…
If anyone's work can be described as "glossy and forgettable" it would be Matthew Vaughn. The guy has done two films and for some reason his penis is like the USA and your mouth is Iraq. Layer Cake is slam bang gangster flick, and I've read that Stardust is fairly good. American Beauty, Road to Perdition, and Jarhead are all verywell done flicks. I'd say the films stack close together in quality alongside Vaughn's LC, at least. Why is it then that Mendes directing Preacher is the "worst news" and Vaughn is somehow leagues ahead of Mendes? Was Stardust really that great? Your dismissal of Mendes is totally exaggerated and unacknowledging of their good merits. You act as if it's Ratner.
Hopefully the movie will cut out all the "LOL BUTTSECKS IS TEH FUNNAY" that plagues Preacher. At least, it has in the first three volumes that I've read so far. And maybe the dialogue could strain less awkwardly to sound hardcore. That would be nice.
there is a lot of fat that could be trimmed from the preacher story. the family stuff, the nawlins stuff, alot of the faux da vinci code conspiracy stuff, the gay stuff. if you look at it pared down it could makea very decent 150min movie. I just don't think mendes could do it without making it prestige. it's the sort of think, the crank bros or joe carnahan should do, otherwise the humor or arseface would be totally lost
Cuts or not, you can't adapt 50,000 pages of comic book into a two or three hour film. It'll blow and get all the purists in a knot.
I don't know how Preacher could be turned into a single movie, it's so epic, but I have faith in Sam Mendes. Yes, I know it's cool to hate American Beauty now, and I agree, it hasn't aged well. But Road to Perdition and Jarhead are fantastic movies.
Robert Rodriguez would be the perfect director for a Preacher movie. Just don't let him write the script.
Stardust was piss. Plain and simple piss. I cannot fathom how people like that film – utter shite. I have a freind who saw it this weekend and loved it. I cannot, CANNOT understand how anyone over the age of twelve could like that film. Utter, utter bollocks.
Undertaker for the Saint of Killers!!
Yay for the David Allan Coe shout-out…. Talk about a poetic vulgarian (or should it be a vulgar poet?). Never thought about Preacher like that…. It's an apt analogy.
"The worst news is that Preacher is moving forward with Sam Mendes in charge." Yeah, because having him on board is MUCH worse than having the director that helmed "Tank Girl" and "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare", right? If I remember correctly, Rachel Talalay's name was the one that kept getting mentioned when a "Preacher" flick was originally supposed to be in the works. I too don't understand all the hate for "American Beauty", especially when fucking "Chicago" won Best Picture 3 years later. You want to talk about overrated Oscar winners? There you go. Fifteen minutes of actual story put to music. Anyway, I've been a Preacher fan since the beginning, and I was really hoping that the HBO thing would pan out, as that story needs some serious time to be told in it's entirety. There is some fat that can be trimmed (I agree with cutting the New Orleans stuff, but the family? No way…), but I still can't see how the whole thing can fit into a single movie, and it would sort of need to, what with there being no guarantee of a sequel.
Whatever Preacher gets right, it undercuts with it's shitty Brit Post-Tarantino wannabe-isms. Sam Mendes is a good choice to try and tease out the good stuff and leave all the garabage in the comic. I don't think he's in any way shy of the nasty side of human nature or vulgar/edgy themes, he just doesn't use those elements to pander to a emotionally retarded audience.
I can't wait for american's to go batshit over that ending.
"I can't wait for american's to go batshit over that ending"
Right, because Americans are the only people in the world to go batshit over anything. Fucking moron.
"he just doesn't use those elements to pander to an emotionally retarded audience."
Agree with John Wayne is a fag.
Whatever this movie (or movies) keeps in or cuts out – and the New Orleans stuff should be the first to go – there simply must be a montage of Herr Starr trying on hats.
"His penis is like the USA and your mouth is like Iraq." I am so stealing this and using it whenever remotely appropriate!
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