garth ennis Tagged Articles at Cinematical

When it comes to Preacher stories, you have to check your enthusiasm and optimism at the gate -- it seems like it's closer to the big screen this time around, but plenty of names have been attached before, so take this story as you will.

We know Sam Mendes will only direct if he likes the script, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, that script now has someone to write it, as Tim Burton-favorite John August landed the tricky job of adapting the Garth Ennis series. So while he lost Shazam!, he gained Reverend Jesse Custer ... and I might be biased towards rebellious preachers who are good in a fight, but I think that's a pretty respectable trade off, don't you?

It's pretty nice to be August now, actually -- in addition to trying to officially attach Mendes, he's also been confirmed to write Burton's stop-motion remake of Frankenweenie , and he's writing the Dark Shadows remake for Burton and Johnny Depp.

Assuming Preacher goes forward from this point ... are August and Mendes the right men for the story? While both do solid work, they also strike me as a bit safe. Neither have ever tackled material as dark and twisted as Preacher. But I might be underestimating their talent for depravity, and the fact that they are "unconventional" picks as opposed to someone like Kevin Smith means this could work out in one of those perfect, fateful ways.

I should have known better than to start writing columns and dreaming too much about a Preacher movie. Apparently, the project is just as iffy as its ever been. EmpireOnline caught up with newly appointed director Sam Mendes to find out that things aren't as definite as they seem.

"I'd love to make Preacher. But there's no script. This is a typical Variety announcement, 'Mendes to direct Preacher' – I wish! Basically they should have written, 'Mendes in development with Preacher'. What I'm doing is, I've gotta find a script. I've just got to get it written." To be fair, The Hollywood Reporter did say that Mendes would "lead the search" for writers, but the directing job didn't seem so questionable.

Mendes does sound pretty enthralled with the material, so at the very least he'll have a good go at it. "It's brilliant, it's an incredible twisted vision. There's so much of it you couldn't possibly fit it all into one movie. It's just about what you keep and what you leave out, and how you structure the story. But just to have that toy set again, being able to paint on a big canvas and to say 'I am gonna do crazy crane shots and massive action sequences again because I want to,' it's exciting."

But enthusiasm doesn't always get movies made. Plenty of people have fallen for the material in the past, and this adapting it for the big or small screen always falls short of the finish line. I fully expect this to slip back into the purgatory of pre-production, the rights to the series collecting dust on a Columbia shelf.

This is officially my favorite news story of the week! Remember when HBO dropped Preacher from their slate, and rumors swirled that a big name was interested? Turns out, that interested party was none other than Sam Mendes, and according to Variety, he's bringing the long-awaited series to the big screen.

Let's slow down and savor that: Sam Mendes is going to direct Garth Ennis' Preacher for Columbia Pictures. Ahhhh. Yes, doesn't it feel good?

For the unconverted, Preacher is a 75-issue series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillion -- and it was the kind of dark, brilliant insanity that comic book fans see maybe once or twice in their lifetime. It centers on the Reverend Jesse Custer, who becomes inhabited by the offspring of an angel and a demon, and gives him a little power called the Word of God. Upon learning that God has officially retired from the Heavenly Father business, Custer goes on a hunt to bring the Lord to justice, accompanied by his ex-girlfriend, Tulip, and a vampire named Cassidy. And that's all I'm going to tell you, because I'm not about to spoil any more of it. After you finish reading this, go to Amazon and buy the first volume. You'll love it. It's a good old fashioned western, mixed with horror, comedy, and blasphemy.

I'm not sure how they'll get most of it onscreen (Arseface, Grandma, and the Allfather plot immediately spring to mind), and I'm not sure if Mendes has the twisted touch to bring it to life. But it's the kind of story you love or you hate -- it's difficult to imagine any director signing on for Preacher without being utterly committed to its depravity. There's no halfway with it.

For me, it all hinges on what man's man they cast as the not-so-good Reverend. I can't wait to see who gets to wear the collar, and I'll drop my support if he doesn't meet my exact specifications.

It really seemed like we were finally going to get Garth Ennis' Preacher this time -- the dark, funny, and controversial comic book series seemed perfect for HBO. Isn't that what they do, after all?

Apparently not. Mark Steven Johnson told Comics Continuum that they've passed on the series. "We were budgeting and everything and it was getting really close to going. But the new head of HBO felt it was just too dark and too violent and too controversial. Which, of course, is kind of the point! It was a very faithful adaptation of the first few books, nearly word for word. They offered me the chance to redevelop it but I refused. I've learned my lesson on that front and I won't do it again. So I'm afraid it's dead at HBO."

But, Johnson says that he's heard that someone is trying to obtain the rights for a big screen adaptation, and that he hopes it happens -- and that whoever nabs it can do the stories justice in a series of films. "Someone" doesn't narrow it down much, but shall we let our imaginations run wild? Frankly, in this world where the legendarily un-filmable (Lord of the Rings, Watchmen) is being made every day, I can't believe Preacher remains untouched. Isn't every studio dying for its own mature comic franchise? Isn't there a daring young filmmaker who's just dying to be boycotted, picketed, and harassed? Aren't we constantly hearing that all publicity, no matter how bad and hysterical, is desirable? Let's put it to the test. Whoever that "someone" is that's angling for the rights, may they succeed, and get Preacher on the big screen.

In the never-ending race to land the next hot comic property, Columbia has just purchased the rights to Garth Ennis' comic series The Boys. The studio will be adapting the series into a film with producer Neal H. Mortiz under his Sony-based Original Pictures company.

The Boys follows a CIA group assigned to keep tabs on superheroes and, when necessary, take violent action against them. Typical of Ennis, it's chock full of graphic violence and sexuality, and happily mocks the Marvel and DC pantheon of heroes.

Moritz, while enthusiastic, seems unaware of how black it is. "Rather than begin with a romantic idea of superheroes out to save the world, The Boys imagines a world in which superheroes really exist, with all of the flaws that real people have. The boys are there to make sure that people with superhuman powers don't get out of line."

I can't shake the feeling that Moritz heard about Watchmen, realized Warner Bros already had it, and asked an intern to find him something with flawed superheroes. Deconstructed superheroes are going to be all the rage in Hollywood now, 20 years after Alan Moore and Frank Miller have been there, done that.

Wow, I sound cynical. I don't mean to. Any original story that a studio picks up is a good thing, and a world where comic books are the hottest thing going is undeniably fun. But will Ennis make it to the screen with all that gleeful brutality and contempt intact? Or will it be neutered into a ordinary action movie?

What do you do when your favorite comic strip character is threatened by obscurity? Become a billionaire and buy up the rights, then plan on resurrecting the comic and adapting it into a video game, TV series and, most importantly, a feature film. Sure, Richard Branson didn't become a rich man (or a knight) just to make Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future popular again, but the character rights are now an added bonus to the Virgin Group chairman's empire. Anyway, Dan Dare hasn't really been that obscured or hidden since his debut in the 1950s; the character even starred in an animated series on Nicktoons UK as recent as 2005. Of course, Americans aren't too familiar with the guy, who is often described as the British Buck Rogers, and Branson's deal should change that.

According to Variety, first up is a series from Virgin Comics written by Garth Ennis (Preacher), who actually cites Dan Dare as "our Captain America, our Superman, our Batman; he's all of them rolled into one." Funny, I thought the lame Captain Britain was all of that, but I'm certainly eager to check out this Dan Dare guy now. I don't know if I'll pick up the comics, the first issue of which comes out in November, but I'll look forward to the movie. CAA is already developing a package for whatever studio decides to latch onto it. The story concerns a post-apocalyptic world in which North America and much of Asia is destroyed and the UK is the last remaining superpower. The fairly new Virgin Comics has been growing notice lately with high profile series announced from filmmakers like Terry Gilliam, John Woo and Shekhar Kapur. Last month, Ed Burns unveiled his own title, which will also be adapted into a movie, and Nicolas Cage also has his own comic.

Poor Garth Ennis has been teased, courted and kicked to the curb for years as various directors, actors and studios have expressed interest in his Preacher comic book line from the mid-late nineties, only to ultimately decide they don't actually want it. I've only been writing for Cinematical for a year now and I've already seen it come up at least twice in my tenure alone. For awhile there it looked like a film may have actually been on track (with View Askew set to produce it at one point or another), but back in May a crazy rumor popped up suggesting the project was again dead in the water, and since then we've heard very little from the Preacher camp.

The rumor suggested that while cinema had defeated Garth Ennis yet again, the man was not yet done fighting. Someone at HBO had expressed interest in the project -- but so many people have "expressed interest" in Preacher it hardly seems worth noting anymore. Well today, official news is out, and HBO does want the project. They're putting together a one hour series based on the comics with (*chuckle*) Mark Steven Johnson of Ghost Rider and Daredevil attached to write at least the pilot. So fans, you got denied a movie yet again, but you're staring down the possibility of many, many hours of Preacher in a format which would seem to be a very good fit.

Yeah, I know. We'll believe it when we see it.

Desperate fans have long awaited a film based on the comic book Preacher. These dedicated and patient fans have been through rumor after rumor as the existence of the film has been in and out of development hell roughly 8.7 zillion times. Recently the rumor mill started up again with what seemed to be more substantial hope than the title had been offered in quite some time ... but it now seems as though we may have our souls crushed again. Moviehole shares news of a tipster from a comics convention in Dublin who spoke with Glenn Fabry and was told the film's funding had fallen through yet again and no studios were currently interested in picking the project up.

But don't lose all hope, you crazy fans. According to the same tipster (who admits he has nothing other than Fabry's word to go on), calls have been made between creator Garth Ennis and some folks over at HBO. It seems as though the producers of The Sopranos are interested in purchasing the project to turn it into an HBO series of some sort. And in all honesty, that would be a pretty fair trade in my opinion -- the more Preacher the better, right?