Wow this almost sounds too good to b true. I would have loved t o have had a series or miniseries but Mendes kicks ass and this sounds like t could be in the right hands.

from comingsoon.net

Sam Mendes to Direct Preacher!
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
October 29, 2008

"Columbia Pictures has picked up the film rights to Preacher, the popular 1990s Vertigo series, for an adaptation to be directed by Sam Mendes (upcoming Revolutionary Road).

The Hollywood Reporter says Neal Moritz and his Original Films are producing with Kickstart Productions' Jason Netter.

Created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, "Preacher," which ran from 1995-2000, told the story of a down-and-out Texas preacher possessed by Genesis, a supernatural entity conceived by the unnatural coupling of an angel and a demon.

Given immense powers, the preacher teamed with an old girlfriend and a hard-drinking Irish vampire and set out on a journey across America to find God -- who apparently had abandoned his duties in heaven -- and hold him accountable for his negligence.

The project was previously set up as a one-hour series at HBO but was put into turnaround. Mark Steven Johnson wrote a pilot which Howard Deutch was attached to direct.

A previous movie version, to have been produced by Kevin Smith's View Askew, among others, got to the casting stage, with James Marsden attached for the title role and a reported budget of $25 million."

whoa. holy shit i hope this really happens.

If it gets off the ground, it will be interesting to see how they condense a 10 volume story into a 2 hour movie.

HBO really sucks ass for not picking this up as a series. Something as awesome, crazy and controversal as this is what they really need. Otherwise I'm paying like 40 bucks a month for Life of Tim and to watch Turtle smoke weed.

That would be incredible with Sam at the helm.

You pay $40 a month for HBO? Where do I sign up for THAT deal?

From Empire:

I loved the comic but I agree with this. An HBO series would definitely make more sense. The story is pretty epic, a lot would have to be cut out for a film that's a managable length, and that would probably hurt the adaptation.

The comic book pretty much is a script, isn't it?

Ennis' writing, especially on Preacher, is very movie-like. There's no captioning, no thought balloons, and it's paced very much like a film. The first graphic novel is basically a script and storyboards.

Well this is no longer Mendes but rather DJ Caruso. And judging by todays article here its also a disaster waiting to happen. That guy suggested for the Saint of Killers is just wrong in every way. Clint Eastwood is the man for that role (but he probably would never do it). Chris Pine i could deal with i guess, but could still think of better actors for the part.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=75356

DJ Caruso? The director of I Am Number Four? Son of a bitch.

Between learning this and hearing the Aronofsky/Wolverine news it's not a good day for comic books movies.

Pettyfer for Saint of Killers? That is six different shades of fail.

I'm so sick of seeing the trailer for this already. Wasn't one religiously-themed bomb enough for Bettany?

Also, in honor of OP, it better be 2 hours and rated R.

Considering the source material, it couldn't be anything other than an R.

At least "Constantine" won't be the shittiest Vertigo movie now.

(Of course, I haven't seen "The Losers" yet.)