Sam Mendes Leaves Preacher



Cover art for the Preacher comic book
Cover art for the Preacher comic book


Last Autumn came the encouraging news that Sam Mendes (JARHEAD, ROAD TO PERDITION) planned to adapt Garth Ennis’s seminal comic book Preacher for the big screen. Now, according to Collider, Mendes is off the project as he’s too busy with the new JAMES BOND film.
This is very sad news indeed as Mendes, although not having tackled quite such controversial material before, is an exceptional film-maker and one who really seemed to understand what a adaptation of Preacher needed to be. There is, however, a silver lining to this cloud as the film’s producer, Neal Moritz, has stated that the story will be spread out over three films (the comic series is 75 issues long) and that it will most definitely be shot with an R rating in mind.
The Preacher comics were about a disillusioned preacher called Jessee Custer who after being accidentally possessed by a supernatural being goes on a roaring rampage of revenge against God himself. The comic was extremely crude, violent and graphic dealing with child molestation, bestiality, domestic abuse and serial killers. With this is mind, it’s encouraging to hear that the adaptation will be gunning for a R rating, rather than watering down proceedings.
There’s no official word on who will replace Mendes but Moritz does suggest that the writer, John August, could be taking the helm himself. If all goes well PREACHER is set to start shooting sometime next year.

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