A-Team Director Risks Religious Right, Eyes Preacher

News, Rumors

Joe Carnahan, director of Smokin’ Aces and the upcoming A-Team, has a few projects in mind for his next film. One of them happens to be Preacher, the long gestating adaptation of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s highly controversial comic book.

Carnahan recently told Superherohype.com that he would love to take a crack at the book.

“And the other thing I’m really keen on or interested in is Preacher because I’m a big Garth Ennis fan and I love that series and that’s out there, and that might be something… I really love that,” he said.

For more from Carnahan, including what parts of the series he thinks needs to be included in the adaptation, follow the link above.

Preacher is the story of a Texas man of the cloth who, after being possessed by the love child of an angel and a demon, sets out to find God and hold him accountable for his sins as a creator. Along the way, he teams up with his ex-flame, now a hitwoman, and a drunken Irish vampire.

Preacher has been in some form of development or another since 1998. At one time, an adaption written by Ennis was almost made under director Kevin Smith’s production banner, View Askew. Later, after the rights traded hands a few more times, production almost began on an HBO series that would adapt the comic book. Daredevil writer/director Mark Steven Johnson was attached to shepherd the project.

More recently, though, Preacher was announced as an upcoming project to be written by John August and directed by Sam Mendes. Mendes has since dropped out but producer Neal H. Moritz seems to still retain the rights and has mentioned in recent interviews an intent to move forward with filming August’s script sometime next year. August himself has mentioned he would like a chance to direct his own script.

The Buzz: I honestly feel Preacher is one of those properties that’s probably better left on the comic book page. As much as I’d love to see the blissfully Texan setting of the book (including a series climax that takes place on the steps of the Alamo) brought to the big screen, I remain cynical that anybody could successfully translate what worked so well in the book to a mainstream film without being killed by a hoard of angry religious nut-job protesters. The book was highly controversial — it featured God Almighty biting the eyeball out of a character’s face!

Besides the content, the series works so well because of its length. Characters were allowed to develop and grow as the series progressed. Filmmakers are left with only a few options when translating Preacher to the big screen. They can adapt the first few issues, setting the stage for sequels that will probably never come (let’s face it, Preacher is never going to be a breakthrough hit with mainstream audiences) or they can try and cram an entire 70-something issues into one two hour movie.

I love Preacher to death. It’s seriously one of my favorite comic books, nay, favorite pieces of literature. That said, I hope the movie never gets made. An HBO series, though. That’s another story.

Robert Saucedo is an avid movie watcher with seriously poor sleeping habits. The Mikey from Life cereal of film fans, Robert will watch just about anything — good, bad or ugly. He has written about film for newspapers, radio and online for the last 10 years. This has taken a toll on his sanity — of that you can be sure. Follow him on Twitter at @robsaucedo2500.