It was starting to seem more likely that the Rapture would happen before a live-action version of the incredible comic series PREACHER would become flesh.
But Jesse Custer and his merry lunatic band might be coming after all, courtesy of director Sam Mendes and Columbia Pictures. The Oscar-winner (AMERICAN BEAUTY) will tackle the enthusiastically blasphemous DC/Vertigo comic (from by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon), with an assist from producer of deafening entertainment Neal Moritz (STEALTH, XXX). Mendes is on the hunt for writers to adapt the sordid tale.
The PREACHER series, unquestionably one of the most compelling comic titles ever published, involves a rough-and-tumble Texan preacher who becomes imbued with the power of Genesis (the offspring of angel and demon). When he finds out God has left his post in Heaven, he takes off with his amateur assassin ex-girlfriend and an Irish vampire named Cassidy on a mission to make the Lord answer for his transgression. During their bizarre adventures they encounter various murderers and sodomites, the immortal Saint of Killers, and a secret paramilitary organization dedicated to protecting the bloodline of Christ.
A feature film version has literally been in the works for years, with TANK GIRL director Rachel Talalay long set to lens from an Ennis draft that incorporated the first few issues of the series to tell the origin of the characters and introduce the Saint of Killers and Arseface. Everyone from Ben Affleck to Johnny Depp to James Marsden had been rumored for the lead role of Jesse Custer, with names like Gary Oldman, Cameron Diaz and Sam Jackson being tossed around for the secondary players. It was most recently in the works as an HBO series (which it really needs) from GHOST RIDER director Mark Steven Johnson (which it really doesn’t).
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