God Help Us

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index...ory=1&id=39049

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HBO is developing a one-hour series based on the popular 1990s Vertigo comic series Preacher, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Mark Steven Johnson, who directed the comic-book adaptations Daredevil and the upcoming Ghost Rider for the big screen, is writing the pilot. Howard Deutch (The Whole Ten Yards) is set to direct. Johnson and Deutch will executive-produce along with Michael De Luca, George Agusto, Chris Bender and J.C. Spink.

The comic series, created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, ran from 1995 to 2000. It told the story of a down-and-out Texas preacher possessed by a supernatural entity conceived by the unnatural coupling of an angel and a demon. Given immense powers, the preacher sets out with an old girlfriend and a hard-drinking Irish vampire on a journey across America to find God—who apparently had abandoned his duties in heaven—and hold him accountable for his negligence. Ennis and Dillon will serve as co-executive producers of the HBO series.

The latest incarnation of the project follows several attempts to bring the comic to the screen, including a proposed feature film starring James Marsden, which would have been produced by Kevin Smith and had a reported budget of $25 million, the trade paper reported.

Sounds interesting, but the whole affair leaves a lot of concerns for me. Not least of which is that the guy who directed the Daredevil movie is writing the pilot.

A lot of what made Preacher tolerable and humorous was that the comic format gave it a cartooney feel. The entire presentation and art style drove home the fact that Preacher was a comic to be enjoyed and not absorbed.

Turning it into a miniseries, no less an HBO miniseries is probably going to make the whole thing more creepy than fun.

My fears could be entirely unfounded, but the way HBO keeps trying to "up the ante," making a show about attempting to hold a negligible egomaniac God accountable and a massive subplot surrounding the inbred descendants of Jesus Christ sounds like the kind of stuff that would set the Evangelical community on fire.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Bradylama

A lot of what made Preacer tolerable and humorous was that the comic format gave it a cartooney feel. The entire presentation and art style drove home the fact that Preacher was a comic to be enjoyed and not absorbed.

That's often the case for comic books and animated material, I'd say. I'm not disagreeing, I'm just saying that often the subject matter for other comic books/manga/anime would be a little too much if attempted in live action.

I'm not going to exclude the possibility that this could be good, but it will require a certain genius to bring the proper feel to the project, because it is supposed to be fun. I've always thought of it as a kind of satire... or something like that. It is meant to be taken seriously, but at the same time... not too seriously.

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Turning it into a miniseries, no less an HBO miniseries is probably going to make the whole thing more creepy than fun.

I can't wait to see Arseface, though. Just to see how they do it in live action. I'm sure they can, because SFX makeup has done incredible things. It's still going to be an interesting face to see on the TV though.

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My fears could be entirely unfounded, but the way HBO keeps trying to "up the ante," making a show about attempting to hold a negligible egomaniac God accountable and a massive subplot surrounding the inbred descendants of Jesus Christ sounds like the kind of stuff that would set the Evangelical community on fire.

I guess so. Was there any notable reaction to the comic book in the Christian community, or did it fly under their radar? I didn't notice any, but then I read the books a while after the initial publication, so I wouldn't have noticed.

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They had busts and molds for the arseface character that was going to be used in the botched Preacher movie, I think.

EDIT: Here you go.

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Was there any notable reaction to the comic book in the Christian community, or did it fly under their radar?

Comics aren't exactly mainstream media. It's easy for something like hentai manga, for instance, to fly completely under the radar of any watchdog group.

Also, the Evangelical Community at the time Preacher was being published wasn't nearly as loud-mouthed as it is nowadays.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Bradylama

They had busts and molds for the arseface character that was going to be used in the botched Preacher movie, I think.

EDIT: Here you go.

Say, that's not bad. It has the right look, and is suitably unpleasant. I'm not surprised, as such. I know they can do great things these days....

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Comics aren't exactly mainstream media. It's easy for something like hentai manga, for instance, to fly completely under the radar of any watchdog group.

Well this is what I figured, but I don't know for sure how much more mainstream comics are in the US. I also don't know how much more watchful your guardians of morality are.

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Also, the Evangelical Community at the time Preacher was being published wasn't nearly as loud-mouthed as it is nowadays.

So true... it's easy to forget, now that they are such a powerful voice.

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It's not even that so much as they are a loud voice.

I was speaking idiomatically.

The last time I can remember them turning a comic into a series on HBO was Spawn. That was God-awful and cancelled after the first season.

I don't even remember seeing anymore Spawn comics after the show was taken off air. Its like everyone in the world suddenly realized that Spawn sucked and no longer wanted anything to with him.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by LuckyEight

I don't even remember seeing anymore Spawn comics after the show was taken off air. Its like everyone in the world suddenly realized that Spawn sucked and no longer wanted anything to with him.

The first couple of dozen issues of Spawn really didn't suck, though. It just started sucking when it became obvious that McFarlane had no idea where he wanted to take the story. I really enjoyed Spawn at first, and I was so dissapointed when it started to go downhil so badly.

FELIPE NO

Definitely, I can agree with that.

I was a huge fan of Spawn at one time, but when more and more characters were being developed into the story-line, I started to lose interest. Once they leave behind the original nemesis, there's honestly not much point in sticking around for the rest. It became too difficult to keep track of all the characters and resulted in Spawn killing just about everything that threated his "family".

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I remember I realized Spawn was a piece of shit when I read that one self-masturbatory issue where McFarlane used a non-canonical character to say that DC and Marvel suckz, but Spawn would like, be always great because Todd loves him and owns him, and would never ever give him away not in a million bajillion years so he'd ALWAYS BE AWSUM, not like those other guys.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by LuckyEight

The last time I can remember them turning a comic into a series on HBO was Spawn. That was God-awful and cancelled after the first season.

No it wasn't. It was on for three seasons and won a couple of Emmys. There's going to be another Spawn animated series, but I haven't heard any recent updates. I personally felt it captured the spirit of the comic, in fact it seemed darker, however like the comic, it dragged its damn feet through storytelling.


The Preacher miniseries sounds interesting. I have the first book collection and I throughly enjoyed it. I'd personally like it animated, however I will watch it when it debuts.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by LuckyEight

Definitely, I can agree with that.

I was a huge fan of Spawn at one time, but when more and more characters were being developed into the story-line, I started to lose interest. Once they leave behind the original nemesis, there's honestly not much point in sticking around for the rest. It became too difficult to keep track of all the characters and resulted in Spawn killing just about everything that threated his "family".

I'd say that's an eventuality with any comic that goes on for X amount of time. It's part of the reason for my love-hate relationship with comics, because on one hand I love the idea of a persistent and sustained world, but on the other, the well starts to run dry when they run out of excuses to put the main character up against his nemesis of choice.

Still, that's why I often prefer the TV versions of comic series, because they tend to boil the series down to the essentials without oversimplifying. (Unlike the movies.)

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Merv Souffle

I'd say that's an eventuality with any comic that goes on for X amount of time. It's part of the reason for my love-hate relationship with comics, because on one hand I love the idea of a persistent and sustained world, but on the other, the well starts to run dry when they run out of excuses to put the main character up against his nemesis of choice.

That's why I tend to prefer comics that don't run forever. Stuff that runs for a limited number of issues, and tells a story with a beginning, middle and an end... that's better than just dragging it out, for my tastes.

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