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For years, fans have been saying that if Garth Ennis and Steve Dillion’s Preacher were to come to any screen, only HBO could do it justice.

Apparently, DC, Vertigo, Ennis, Dillion and whatever gods watch over Time Warner agree.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Preacher will launch on HBO as a series, adapted by Mark Steven Johnson (Ghost Rider, Daredevil) and directed by Howard Deutch. Johnson and Deutch will executive produce along with Michael De Luca, George Agusto, Chris Bender and JC Spink.

From HR:

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 series was created by Irish-born writer Garth Ennis and British artist Steve Dillon, who will serve as co-executive producers. Ken F. Levin, who reps the duo, also will serve as co-exec producer.

The series -- which developed a rabid fan base -- was known for tackling religious and political issues, its dark and violent sense of humor and its observations of American culture. It also was one of the series that helped define Vertigo, the adult-oriented line of comics from DC Comics.

There have been several attempts to bring the comic to the screen, whether big or small, but nothing stuck. A 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.

The project reunites Johnson with Deutch; Johnson wrote "Grumpier Old Men," which Deutch directed. Deutch's directing credits include TV's "Gleason," the pilot for "Melrose Place" and the 1986 film "Pretty in Pink." He is repped by ICM.

Johnson is repped by CAA.

Though the series ended in 2000, after 66 issues, Preacher has consistently been one of DC/Vertigo's best-selling trade collections through both the comic and bookstore market, with each of the nine volumes seeing multiple printings. Like many other Vertigo properties, Ennis and Dillion have a creator participation deal with Preacher, which allows them to continually receive a portion of the revenue generated by the trades and other rights to the property.

While no start date was given, or cast announced, the bar has obviously been set very high for the adaptation of the property, given the reputation of HBO's original series. Given the content of Preacher and the buttons a loyal adaptation of the comic series will push, the network is clearly looking at one of its most controversial series to date.

Eh, I knew his name was being thrown around for that failed movie project, but I hope it isn't him in this HBO series. That guy has zero charisma.

Don't start dissing Cyclops, goddamnit. He's always been my favorite X-Man and the most tragically underused or badly written. He's got tons more depth than "I'm da best der is at what I do" Wolverine douchebag cuntwhistle.

That would be... unwise.

Of course, editorial control on that line has been fucking awful for years, even during the best run of the series (Morrison's run), so why not just totally remove all the past underpinnings of the series and create more shitty books about 198 uninteresting mutant characters.

Q: Did the research you did for this kind of prep you for Preacher?

MSJ: Preacher I have always wanted to do. Preacher is like, you know, it's the greatest but it's so difficult. And I love it more than anybody and I remember reading a script a while ago it was gonna go to film and I was like, oh, how do you make a two hour movie from Preacher? You can't do it. So, when I went into HBO I said very simply, here's the comic, there's seventy-five issues plus the four issue Saint of Killers, every issue in an hour. It's a six year show. And HBO, God bless them, went, cool!

Q: So are you staying pretty loyal to the whole storyline?

MSJ: No, not loyal, exact. So it's like, we had our first meeting the other day, I kept waiting for them to go, we're not doing this! (laughing) It's like, I want Odin Quincannon having sex with a meat person. (laughing) If I can do that, I've made my mark on the world. Everything is just like so out there, this is it. They're like, fuckin' HBO's got balls, they were like, yeah bring it! Do it! So, I'm like, it's just like Daredevil, it's just like Ghost Rider, no one comes to your door and says, hey, you want to do these movies? I'm the last guy. But I'm the guy that gets it done because I care and because I do it. People have tried to make Daredevil, they've tried to make Ghost Rider, it hasn't happened, but I got it made. And Daredevil with mixed results, with Ghost Rider I hope much better. The Preacher I hope exact. Like today, I emailed Kevin Smith, I was like, Dude, I just got Preacher, I know you love it, if it goes, and who knows if it will, but if it goes would you please direct an episode. Because I want to go to Kevin, I want to go to Robert Rodriguez, I want to go to all these people and do guest directors. That would be really cool. I want it to be a prestige thing, you love Preacher? Come do a show. Usually it's a guest actor, I want it to be guest director. But keep the spirit of it, keep the vibe of it but also know, there will be a different imprint everytime who comes to direct the show. My job is to help write the show, I am working with Garth [Ennis] everyday, he's a big part of it, make sure it's exactly what we want and let the director put his imprint on it. But it's gotta be a book.

Q: Do you know where you are shooting or anything?

MSJ: I haven't even written it yet. My meeting was yesterday. Again, who knows what will happen. I hope that it will go. They've been trying to make Preacher, like Daredevil and Ghost Rider, for years and years and years.

Q: As the series kicks in, is Garth going to be there everyday if he wants to be?

MSJ: If he wants to be absolutely. My first meeting was yesterday, and Garth is in New York so he was on speaker phone and like all meetings when there's one person on the speaker phone you all go and stare at the speaker phone. But it was so great to talk to him and ask him questions, and as it always happens, with the creators, they're like, don't be beholden to the source material, I just did that cause, A, B, or C. They were like, do whatever you want. I was like, no, no, no, it's gotta be exactly that. So he's the one going, use your own thing. But, with Garth's help, I said to Garth, also tell me are there any stories you wanted to tell but weren't able to. Was there something that you wanted to do but didn't have time, I want to hear that too! We want to fill it out, we want to make it, a six year show, or above with a definite ending the way it does which is obviously, incredibly controversial. Again, nobody would have the balls to do this but HBO.

Q: Do you think it will be harder or easier to do it so exactly unlike Ghost Rider where you could play with it, open it up and pick and choose what you like?

MSJ: Right, no, no, no, no, Ghost Rider is, came in and out of circulation for years because it had flaws. Again the image was great the idea was great adn so my goal was to find out what were the strengths and then what could I bring to it? Like I said, the bounty hunter was my idea. I think it's a good idea, it helps the whole thing be stronger. And the creators and the comic people said, great! We want to do that! Preacher doens't need that. Preacher's perfect in my opinion. All the things that made people go, no it's not for me, make me go, yeah! That's what I am so excited about.

It would also be a resolution of sorts to his character arc the past couple issues about being more or less an ineffective leader who was only given the job because the Prof. thought he would wash out of the X-men otherwise.  Colossus' death would be anti-climatic,

Fuck that cynicism Haem. Your answer should be:

YES!!!!

but he is the heart and soul of the comics.

because any sci-fi/fantasy series on HBO is doomed to an early death.

Oh, and if they do go ahead with this I hope they exorcise the annoying Bill Hicks/Pogues fanboidom from the comics.  Bill Hicks I emphatically don't think was a comic genius, and although I love the Pogues, there was never any reason to highlight them as much as they did in the comics.  It was rather sad and pathetic.  God help me, if I ever write a comic it'll be to tell a story, not to masturbate over what my cultural influences are.

If The Preacher can be shot in a city with a few trips out to a field or desert it will be fine.

I assume it would need some CGI and I don't know how HBO would do that, I can't think of a series that has ever needed it so they could screw it up pretty good.  Like when they made Tony Soprano's mother talk using CGI because the actress had passed away *shudder*.

Don't start dissing Cyclops, goddamnit. He's always been my favorite X-Man and the most tragically underused or badly written. He's got tons more depth than "I'm da best der is at what I do" Wolverine douchebag cuntwhistle.

He's one of those characters who is great in concept but suffers from almost perpetually bad writing.


................................................like Venom.

a lineage of masturbating retards.

Oh, and Preacher is a pretty good comic, but it's not Transmetropolitan or anything.  Of course it's very character oriented, too, but I can't help but be disappointed with it due to how they handled the religious aspects.  The vanity of God is a nice twist, but God's a pussy outside heaven, and he's scarred shitless of a one-trick pony who can't even find him?  Okay then. 

Although, "Need more gun" might be the single best line ever printed on a comic page.

I hated the ending though. Thought it was a cheap glorification of the Saint's "Bad Ass" archetype. And blasphemous just for the sake of it (as opposed to blasphemous in more creative ways....as the rest of comic was done. Heh).

Well, as you know, I am a "preacher" myself. Clouds my judgment a bit. I don't think "God" should be taken out like that :wink:

I forgot about that detail though. But either way, it just seemed juvenile. You can't deny Ennis is an Irishman in love with America...And especially the whole cowboy thing. He elevated cowboys to God status. Even if you include that plot detail, I think that was still his intent.

I live in San Antonio (where that final faceoff between Jesse and the Saint took place). It's not as cool as he thinks it is.

[edit] I think you're just pointing out the Saint's motivation. Ennis' motivation is in those last few panels. They speak volumes (where Jesse is riding off with Tulip, talking about his "career".....And then the last page of the Saint).

Oh, and if they do go ahead with this I hope they exorcise the annoying Bill Hicks/Pogues fanboidom from the comics.  Bill Hicks I emphatically don't think was a comic genius, and although I love the Pogues, there was never any reason to highlight them as much as they did in the comics.  It was rather sad and pathetic.  God help me, if I ever write a comic it'll be to tell a story, not to masturbate over what my cultural influences are.

Speaking only from the late 70's/late 80's of the X-Men comics, the heart and soul of the team were either Colossus or Nightcrawler.  Whatever they've done since then doesn't matter.  I'm locked into my late teenager phase of comic books, and I'll be damned if you dislodge me.

Don't start dissing Cyclops, goddamnit. He's always been my favorite X-Man and the most tragically underused or badly written. He's got tons more depth than "I'm da best der is at what I do" Wolverine douchebag cuntwhistle.

Johnson tells Comic Continuum as such:

“We were budgeting and everything and it was getting really close to going,” Johnson told The Continuum. “But the new head of HBO felt it was just too dark and too violent and too controversial. Which, of course, is kind of the point!

“It was a very faithful adaptation of the first few books, nearly word for word. They offered me the chance to redevelop it but I refused. I’ve learned my lesson on that front and I won’t do it again. So I’m afraid it’s dead at HBO.

“I’ve heard someone is in the process of getting the rights to turn it into a feature film. I hope that happens. But I hope it happens as a series of movies as one movie couldn’t do it justice. I really love that story and I dedicated a lot of my time to honor Garth’s work. But it wasn’t meant to be.”

HBO... the network that brought us Deadwood thought Preacher was too dark? What kind of fucking retards do they have running things over there now?

I'm not sure that even HBO would be up for depicting a guy ripping off his own penis and fucking himself up the ass with it.

That being said, I'm glad to hear it was shitcanned rather than being "revised".