{"id":4579,"date":"2009-07-06T20:27:46","date_gmt":"2009-07-07T01:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=4579"},"modified":"2009-07-06T23:10:21","modified_gmt":"2009-07-07T04:10:21","slug":"garth-ennis-on-possible-preacher-and-boys-flicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2009\/07\/06\/garth-ennis-on-possible-preacher-and-boys-flicks\/","title":{"rendered":"Garth Ennis On Possible PREACHER And BOYS Flicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"preacher1\"<\/a>Many recent comic book to film adaptations have made it seem as if it were relatively easy to translate their four-color superhero stories to the big screen. But as comics writer Garth Ennis relates, that is not always the case. Ennis has two creator-owned series currently optioned by Hollywood studios, Preacher<\/em> and The Boys<\/em>, and he sees that one may be easier to realize in celluloid than the other.<\/p>\n

The feature film rights for both Preacher<\/em> and The Boys<\/em> rest at Columbia Pictures. Currently director Sam Mendes is developing Preacher<\/em> with scriptwriter John August. Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi are currently working on a Boys<\/em> screenplay, though no director has been attached to the project.<\/p>\n

“I do see a Boys<\/em> movie as being more viable than a Preacher<\/em> one,” he stated at the recent WizardWorld Philadelphia comic book convention. “Because with Preacher<\/em>, if you start pulling cards out of the structure, it collapses pretty quickly. It\u2019s a 2000 page story and nearly all the elements rely on other elements.”<\/p>\n

A fan favorite almost immediately upon the publication of its first issue in 1995, Preacher<\/em> featured a down and out Texas man of the cloth suffused with the power of the offspiring of an angel and demon on a quest to find God, who has abandoned His creation. Joining him were his ex-girlfriend and an Irish vampire. At times vulgar, darkly funny, insightful and satirical, the series ran for 75 issues, including several one-shot specials and a four-issue miniseries. There have already been a few attempts to adapt the series to live action. Although most of them saw the project as a possible film franchise, the most recent attempt was to mount it as a television series for HBO.<\/p>\n

Ennis knows the trouble with adapting his own work, as he and artist Steve Dillon, who co-created Preacher<\/em> with Ennis, took their own pass at writing a screenplay.<\/p>\n

“We did cobble together a script once, trying to weed out all the things that would still hang together,” Dillon, also appearing with Ennis, added.<\/p>\n

“But you can\u2019t distill the whole story,” conceded Ennis. “And we were only using the first six issues or so. We were doing it early on, too, before Preacher<\/em> had become the 70-odd issues that it would become.”<\/p>\n

\"boys13\"<\/a>The writer does acknowledge that his newer series, The Boys<\/em>, which centers on a CIA-sponsored group tasked with policing the world’s superheroes, may be easier to get to big screen despite its oft times extreme nature. Ennis created teh series with artist Darick Robertson.<\/p>\n

“With The Boys<\/em>, you can just isolate those five characters and you can have a very simple story about people who deal with superheroes,” Ennis explains. “You would probably have to lose a lot of the commentary on history, politics and corporate culture that you get in The Boys<\/em>, but it really is just a story about a team of guys who beat the crap out of superheroes.”<\/p>\n

“[The Boys<\/em> have] got a simple high concep,” Dillon points out. “You\u2019ve just done the Hollywood pitch. You can\u2019t do that with Preacher<\/em>. When people ask me what Preacher<\/em> is about, I can\u2019t really explain the whole thing.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve actually come up with one,\u201d Ennis counters with a laugh. \u201c[Preacher<\/em>] is Wild At Heart<\/strong> meets Near Dark<\/strong> and then Unforgiven<\/strong> shows up to kill everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many recent comic book to film adaptations have made it seem as if it were relatively easy to translate their four-color superhero stories to the big screen. But as comics writer Garth Ennis relates, that [click for more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[31,914,22,913,1789],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-comicsandfilm","8":"tag-comics-and-film","9":"tag-garth-ennis","10":"tag-in-development","11":"tag-preacher","12":"tag-the-boys"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t