Sam Mendes directing PREACHER!

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Sam Mendes, the talented Brit director who gave us AMERICAN BEAUTY and ROAD TO PERDITION has been hired by Columbia Pictures to direct PREACHER, the critically acclaimed 90's Vertigo comic series from Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. Though I've never read PREACHER, I'm certainly not unaware of it's popularity. I would argue it is the biggest comic franchise yet adapted to film. I guess that is about to change and boy they could hardly have picked a more exciting choice to helm.

"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.

Many have tried previously to get this series off the ground, the most famous attempt probably being Kevin Smith's crack at it a few years back with James Marsden in the leading role with a budget of $25 million. Though for whatever reason it never happened. Most recently Mark Steven Johnson (GHOST RIDER, DAREDEVIL) wrote a pilot for the a HBO series which was canned. Though many were glad to see Johnson go... fans were adamant the tale should be a series and not a movie... but it would seem a movie it shall be. But what a choice of director! source - the hollywood reporter