Preacher is a cherished 1990s comic book story set in motion by an affair between a demon and an angel. So perhaps it is appropriate that attempts to transfer it to the screen have been stuck in development hell for years. Writer/director Kevin Smith was initially rumoured to be turning Preacher into a movie, although he has since downplayed his involvement. Then HBO were going to adapt it as a TV series with Mark Steven Johnson, the director of duff superhero blockbuster Daredevil. Then it was going to be a Sam Mendes film, before he decided to make Skyfall instead. No one, it seemed, had the gumption to do Preacher justice.
Now AMC, the former classic movie channel turned cable drama powerhouse, has given the green light to the project, announcing their intention to adapt Preacher in collaboration with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the writers of Superbad and This is the End. Sam Catlin, one of Breaking Bad's producers, is also on board as showrunner. While the official announcement only came yesterday, gravel-voiced teddybear Rogen had been dropping some heavy hints. "Arseface. John Wayne, The Saint of Killers," he tweeted last November. For non-acolytes, it sounded like gibberish. For the legions of Preacher fans, this roll call of colourful supporting characters was like a dog whistle. Hallelujah!
Why is it so revered? Published by mature DC Comics imprint Vertigo, Preacher is a 75-issue series by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon that doesn't so much grapple with big ideas – good against evil, the sacred and the profane – as take a tyre iron to them. It's a mythic western, a road trip, a love story and a harrowing tale of abuse. Jesse Custer is a preacher who loses his faith just as he gains a theological superpower: the ability to command anyone to do what he wants. Along with his trigger-happy ex-girlfriend Tulip and a boozy Irish vampire called Cassidy, he sets off across America to find God, who has done a runner. There's also a ghostly version of John Wayne, a militarised cult protecting Christ's bloodline, a millionaire omni-sexual called Jesus DeSade with a thing for armadillos ... it's violent, unpredictable, heartfelt and often hilarious. There are scenes that make the Game of Thrones Red Wedding look like a Tupperware party.
Ennis and Dillon have given their public blessing to AMC's proposed version, and with producers such as Rogen and Goldberg, who clearly venerate the source material, and the growing prestige of the cable network – it helped turn The Walking Dead from black-and-white comic into a worldwide phenomenon – you could call Preacher the ultimate comic book adaptation. If it underperforms (and a character called Arseface admittedly might not be to everyone's taste), it would be a bitter blow to the reputation and self-esteem of comics, an artform that despite generating billions of dollars, still seems artistically undervalued. One tiny alarm bell might be that Rogen's last comic book-related experience was starring, co-writing and producing the Green Hornet movie, but unless he's hellbent on casting himself as Jesse, it's worth giving him the benefit of the doubt.
Though totally overshadowed by the buzz around Preacher, Syfy just announced they are developing a pilot of another Vertigo title, Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli's DMZ. It's a grim, gritty series told from the viewpoint of a fairly unlikable embedded journalist, the sole reporter in a near-future Manhattan that has become a shattered demilitarised zone in the aftermath of a second US civil war. It's another sign that, while superheroes look set to dominate movie release schedules for years to come, TV producers are increasingly looking to non-spandex-related comic material to adapt, attracted by the prospect of tapping an established fanbase and working with extended yet often self-contained source material. There's no sitting around waiting for George RR Martin to finish his next book.
After a disappointing Keanu Reeves movie, Constantine – a character who has appeared in both Vertigo and DC Comics – is coming soon to NBC, with Neil Marshall directing the pilot. Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra's Y: The Last Man – another Vertigo series, about a pandemic that kills every male on the planet except for a shiftless escapologist and his pet monkey – was being developed as a Shia LaBeouf movie but it looks as if the rights will revert to the creators if production doesn't start imminently. Vaughan, a writer/producer on Lost and Under the Dome since writing Y: The Last Man would seem well-placed to nudge it toward the small screen, which increasingly feels like the natural home for non-kapow! stories.
It's a shame, then, that Sandman – Neil Gaiman's sprawling, award-winning, goth-friendly series about the Lord of Dreams – is still being planned as a movie, directed by and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Everyone loves the affable and talented Gordon-Levitt, but if he screws this one up, he might wish he'd stuck to Batman.
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