Good news, everybody: Sam Mendes is no longer directing Preacher. While ruthlessly pumping Neal Moritz for every single drop of info about any of his future plans (ribs for dinner this Saturday!), Collider discovered that going off to do the new Bond film has taken Mendes off the Vertigo adaptation.
This is good because, quite simply, Mendes wasn’t the guy for it. I know that’s being a bit parochial, especially after Mendes surprised us all with the very good, actually warm Away We Go, but the cowpunk sensibilities of Garth Ennis’ profane and sacrilegious comic series – about a guy wanting to hunt down God and make him answer for his crimes – seemed utterly mismatched with Mendes’ normal skillset.
I’m hoping this puts Preacher right back in development hell, where it’s been languishing for about a decade. This is not a property that lends itself to an easy adaptation, and I think the tone of this piece is so tricky that it’s reasonable to expect it gets fucked up – especially when a dude like Moritz, who isn’t the most intellectually rigorous of producers, is behind it. And when he says that the current script, by John August, is ‘probably more accessible to a broader audience right now.’ Of course Moritz could show up again in a week with an incredible announcement (I think David O Russell would be unfuckwitable on this property), but I’m filled with deep cynicism.
18 comments
I love the shit out of Preacher. Jesse Custer, Tulip, Cassidy, all those crazy fucks. But there is no way in hell any adaptation will do the source material justice. I'd rather it not be made at all than have a watered down, pussified, PC version itself.
If Rob Zombie were a better filmmaker, I would think he should be all over this. Sadly, no.
Maybe they can bounce it around as a possible TV series again, as that's really about the ONLY way it can all be told. While there are some parts that can be cut from the overall story, there's just too much for one movie, and with no guarantee of a sequel, there isn't much point in even trying. It's probably my favorite comic series of all time (with Ennis being my favorite writer), and like You-Know-Who said, I'd rather see it NOT adapted for film than have just one half-arsed Preacher movie out that only gets to tell part of the story.
I hope someone gets around to doing it so I get to see religious groups lose their fucking shit over the ending.
Arseface, Herr Starr, Jesus-like pederast, the retarded decedent of Jesus, the religious leaders, Jessie's family…There's absolutely no way they can do it justice.
"seemed utterly mismatched with Mendes' normal skillset." So Mendes is this decade's Christopher Nolan?
Whoever ends up directing it Timothy Olyphant MUST BE Jesse Custer. There is no other option.
David O. Russell would be great.
Never happen, of course.
Still, it would have been hilarious to see Sam Mendes trying to put a character named 'Arseface' on screen.
Two words: MATTHEW VAUGHN.
You're very welcome.
It can ONLY be done in serial form on HBO. That's it, really. A single movie will fuck this property royally. Learn the Watchmen lesson, DC!
Am I the only one who fucking hates Collider? They come off as a bunch of overzealous fanboys without a drop of professionalism.
What #3 and #10 said (minus the stuff about Watchmen getting fucked over – I rather liked it).
'The WATCHMEN lesson.' I have to admit that I really enjoyed the movie. Am I in the minority here? Is it regarded as a failure? I recently heard it described as 'the best movie ever made by a bad film-maker' – which kind of made me laugh. Thing is, I really loved the performances in it – a truly bad movie would not have those performances. Loved the cast. Thought the visuals were pretty jaw-dropping.
Loved the cast of watchmen? Matthew Goode and Malin Ackerman sucked my hairy balls. Goode was miscast since I read the news here on chud. Fucking terrible Veidt. They should have gotten Brad Pitt.
Preacher is one of the worst comics ever. And I legitimately love love the first half of the series. But after that it becomes just one of the worst things anybody's ever read. That being said, Timothy Olyphaunt could get me to watch it.
i hope this movie never gets made, no matter what they do there's no way it'll compare to the comic, which is one of the all time greatest comics of all time and Ripley doesn't know shit. what I loved most about Preacher was how cinematic it was, using the visual power of comics in a very dynamic way, that will not translate backwards onto the screen. Nothing beats reading it alone sitting in my childhood living room. Not even drugs and pussy.
People need to realize that the original material (book or comic or even original film) is frozen in amber. When a film is made, it doesn't go back and change the words on the page or the frames of the comic book. The hand wringing that no can "do it justice" so please, oh, please don't try is just stupid. I do agree that there are film makers that don't seem right for certain projects, but in the end, they only screw up their own product, not the source material. I'm an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan and look forward to any film version I can get my hands on. I'm rarely thrilled with the final product, but I hope they keep swinging for the fences anyway. On a slightly related note, I hate the name "comic book movie." There is a lot of great source material out there and some of it is found between the covers of comic books, but when you make a film based on that source material, it's a film. The media changes and so does how the story is interpreted. Being a slave to source from one media to the next can sometimes be a recipe for failure.
I see your Olyphant and raise you a Dafoe as Starr.
And a pox on Nick for this verification shit.
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.