No Script for Preacher

By John Freeman on 7 November 2008

American Beauty director Sam Mendes has revealed that his big screen adaptation of comic book series Preacher has no script.

Mendes, who signed up for the project after Columbia Pictures picked up the rights after a View Askew movie and a proposed HBO series previously fell through, recently told film magazine Empire: “Basically, they should have written, ‘Mendes in development with Preacher‘.

“What I’m doing is, I’ve got to find a script. I’ve just got to get it written.”

Despite the lack of screenplay, Mendes told Empire he’s excited about adapting the comic series created by Garth Ennis, which centres on man who journeys across America to find God, who has abandoned Heaven, after being possessed by the spawn of an angel and a demon.

“There’s so much of [the story] you couldn’t possibly fit it all into one movie,” says Mendes. “It’s just about what you keep and what you leave out, and how you structure the story,” he said.

“But just to have that toy set again, being able to paint on a big canvas and to say: ‘I am gonna do crazy crane shots and massive action sequences again because I want to.’ It’s exciting.”

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.