Garth Ennis realizes that alterations need to happen for most comic book movie adaptations. That seems to be one of the main reasons
Preacher has had so much trouble getting off the ground. Another is much of his work has very adult themes and images. The writer feels one of his other works,
The Boys, has a much easier path to the big screen.
"Once you start plucking enough of 'Preacher' to make a two-hour film, you have to leave so much out of it. And once you start taking bits out of it, the whole lot collapses. On the other hand, it would be quite easy to take 'The Boys' and take the core team of five and just have them as a team that surveils and occasionally beats up superheroes," he explained.
"That's a simple enough concept that you could isolate it and put into a two-hour film as a self-contained story."
The Boys follows a superpowered CIA squad, known informally as "The Boys", whose job it is to keep watch on superheroes and, if necessary, intimidate, blackmail, or kill them.
Asked if he has been involved with the writing team (Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay) at all, Ennis replied:
"I did have one initial conversation with the writers and we seem to be on the same page, but since then I’ve not really been involved. Unless I’m in something from the beginning, as with 'Crossed,' I tend to just sit back and just let whatever’s going to happen, happen. It’s crazy to worry about something you have no control over."
Crossed, by the way, is a series that follows a group of survivors beset by victims of a disease that makes people engage in all manner of deranged, vile and inhumane acts upon each other. The title of the series comes from the cross-shaped rash that develops on the faces of victims. Ennis is working directly on a screenplay for that.