Sam Mendes Comments on ‘Preacher’ Announcement

A little over a week ago, we brought you the news that Sam Mendes (‘American Beauty’, ‘Road to Perdition’) was directing the big-screen adaptation of ‘Preacher’. Â  Apparently that news is not entirely accurate. Â  Mendes recently sat down with Empire Magazine and the ‘Preacher’ subject was brought up.

“I’d love to make ‘Preacher’,† Mendes said in the interview. “But there’s no script.†

“This is a typical Variety announcement,† he went on to say. “‘Mendes to direct Preacher’ – I wish! Basically they should have written, ‘Mendes in development with ‘Preacher’’. What I’m doing is, I’ve gotta find a script. I’ve just got to get it written.†Ã‚  

The story follows Jesse Custer, a down-and-out Texas preacher who is possessed by Genesis, a supernatural entity conceived by an angel and a demon. Â  This gives Jesse immense power, and he, along with two others, set on a quest across America to find God and hold him accountable for his negligent nature.

Mendes also added some details as to what interested him about the project.

“It’s brilliant, it’s an incredible twisted vision,† he said of the 66-issue story. “There’s so much of it you couldn’t possibly fit it all into one movie. It’s just about what you keep and what you leave out, and how you structure the story. 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..†

One recent issue fans of the ‘Preacher’ series have been discussing is what Mendes will do about the frequent appearances in the series by the ghost of John Wayne.

“That’s an interesting one, I wonder what the John Wayne estate’s gonna say about that,† Mendes said. “We’ll see, we’ll have to get them on side†¦”

Source: Empire