Released by :
ETA: Unknown
Development Status: Development Hell

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Latest updates

Tuesday 23rd March 2004: Preacher Update:
James Marsden has been talking about the stalled development on Preacher "Almost two years ago I got a phone call from my agent, offering it. I was like, 'What is Preacher?' They were very vague. So I ask some of my friends, and they're like 'They offered you Jesse Custer? Preacher? Wow!' I got a couple of the graphic novels and I was captivated, it was some of the best writing that I'd ever read. I just found it an amazing piece of literature. Right now it's in development hell. When you have an independantly financed film, it's getting harder to get them made. We're gonna try to go this summer. I kind of wanted to wait another year so I could get more wrinkles and get even more weathered. If there was ever a role that I wanted to do some method acting, this would be it. My wife read every single one of the issues in two days, she was in love with 'em".

Thursday 17th April 2003: Preacher Update:
It appears that financing for Preacher is questionable at this point. That’s according to James Marsden in a recent interview with MTV. If the money angle gets worked out, Marsden says filming may begin sometime in June. He also tells MTV that the mature relationships between main characters in the movie is one of the main reasons he was attracted to working on this comic book adaptation.
Item: Vic Penney

Wednesday 16th October 2002: Preacher Update:
Filming news today with the word that Cats and Dogs 2, Chronicles Of Riddick, Preacher, Scooby Doo 2, Treasure Island (live action), and an Urban Legend sequel will all film next year in British Columbia.

Wednesday 16th October 2002: Preacher Update:
Production on the in development Preacher movie has been moved back to at least April next year. The reason? The production was waiting for James Marsden to finish filming on X Men 2 and the weather has closed in meaning they will have to wait for spring.

14/8/01
Dougray Scott will not appear in Preacher. "Say YES! Amen! Raise those hands to the heavens! (she says in her best Suthern drawhl). Comics2Films took the time to find out the truth.They contacted Dougray's Hollywood and London agents regarding the Preacher rumor. Both locations stated that their client had not signed on to any such movie." (Thanks to Sylvia at Dougray Scott In Focus)


2/8/01
Dark Horizons inform us that Dougray Scott and William H. Macy are in talks to star in the movie adaptation of comic book, Preacher.


Preacher was a comic book series created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, that followed Jesse Custer who sets off to find God, as God has apparently missing. Sounds wet, doesn't it? Well it sure aint, Preacher is full of the some of the juiciest dialogue ever seen in comics and some of the most original characters too such as Arseface, whose face is literally an arse.

Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon had quite a few studio's interested in making a movie out of Preacher and Ennis had this to say about it."We're waiting to hear from somebody that can tell us what we want to hear. Steve Dillon and I have decided that we'll wait until someone agrees to give us creative control.(they would)allow me to write the script, Steve to do the storyboards, and we'll make this thing as watertight as possible so nothing can go wrong." Bit confident that Garth, there are very few people who can say they are able to have so much control over their properties once Hollywood take over on it, still Ennis owns the title so it is his prerogative. Preacher finished it's run last year and the rumour, when it was announced that people were interested in the project, was that Ennis would write the screenplay himself after Preacher finished.

First person to take an option out on the project was Rachel Talalay , who directed the mega flop Tank Girl, also based on a comic book. Personally I wouldn't have thought she would have had a snowball in ehll's chance of getting the movie made, but there you go.

Casting rumours then started with Johnny Depp thought to be likely for the role, or Christian Slater, but he was thought to have turned it down. Other names being bandied about were Gary Oldman and Tim Roth and Patricia Arquette. Ennis responded to the casting rumours with "I haven't a clue about who's going to be cast in the film, so don't ask me!" He also announced that he had written three drafts of the movie already, and this was before the comic had even finished it's run.

Comic Book writer Warren Ellis got a hold of a copy of the screenplay and he had this to say about it, "Not quite what I was expecting, but a good laugh nonetheless. It adapts Preacher for the movies rather more loosely that I would've considered wise, but it seems to work."

Rumour then came in that Kevin Smith was attached to the project as producer.Things the moved forward with the news that Ben Affleck, Cameron Diaz, Robert Carlyle and Samuel L Jackson had all been offered roles in the movie. The movie had also apparently had its financing arranged by producers Rupert Harvey and Michael Heuser. Rupert Harevy had this to say about the project "One of the reasons I started this was to protect what was great about the comic. We're going to give it our best shot" The movie may have had financing at this stage but it didn't have a distributor.

Ben Affleck then turned down the role as he viewed the movie as being too similar to Dogma, which funnily enough is another Kevin Smith movie.

Things then cooled off considerably on the project and Garth Ennis had this to say about the state of play "The past year there's been a third draft of the screenplay that everyone seems happy with. The only problem is that it seems next to impossible to get people to invest money into this story because of the material in it and the general atmosphere against this kind of stuff. Maybe people just don't want to see it, you know? My personal line is: I'd rather it didn't happen. I don't think we need another Tank Girl, another Judge Dredd. Having said that, it could still happen. I could find myself crossing my fingers and jumping into the hell of Hollywood. But, really, at the minute, it seems unlikely. Ultimately, it's a comic and works best as a comic. It would be nice to see that kind of stuff on the big screen, but the possibilities of it going horribly awry are just too ghastly to comprehend."

Kevin mith tried to keep up interest in the movie even if it sounded like Garth Ennis had given up in that he announced he was helping it "as much as he possibly can."

Casting rumours continued to fly with both Jean Reno and Heather Graham rumoured to be attached.

Rachel Talalay, who Ennis (from his quotes) appears to not want to direct the movie had this to say about the Preacher movie project "My vision is for a new kind of Western - with the honor and codes of the Old West combined with the complexity of the modern world. It's good Vs. Evil in a place where good is struggling to exist at all it. Our flawed heroes with their complex backgrounds walk tall in the saddles of their pickup trucks and confront the evil of past present and future. I went to a forum on Preacher where the devotees were honoring Steve Dillon for creating the best bullet hits in comic book history. That's a challenge to create in film. Preacher is set in a violent world. But it is not about the horror of violence. It's about the humor inherent in the vision of such an excess of violence."

And that is pretty much as far as the project got. But the Preacher series ended last year, so now is maybe the time to re-look at this project, surely Rachel Talalay's option has expired now, and Dogma has been out for ages so Preacher wouldn't be compared to that now.

More News as we get it.

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