Preacher: The Unadaptable Series

I can see your points! I for one would love to see it on screen but the likelyhood is slim. I love Preacher and just started rereading it all last week!

I gotta' say making the movie would be an endevour. I live in the bible belt, so I know how fanatical christians are. Still, I dont see it as impossible. It doesnt look like Kick-Ass is gonna' be censored to death. Whoever gets there hands on Preacher will have to have the same drive, and tell the studios to eat a polar bear's rectum.

I agree with Ror - it could be done if a studio with the stones to stand behind it ever did it, BUT I don't think it could ever be on the big screen. There's too much meat 'plot-wise' to ever try and be condensed into a 2-hour film. This needs to be on TV in a mini-series or series format (a cable network - someone like HBO). Give the material the space and time to breath and properly grow.

Im not organized religions biggest fan, but there are extremists in every religion that taint it for people that just want to worship and live good lives.

Preacher, in my mind, is a better series than Watchmen ever was. That's not to put Watchmen down, it just shows how great Preacher is. Ennis plotted a series with a begining, middle and definite end. Remember that Watchmen was twelve issues and they couldn't fit it all in one movie. How many of your favorite things were left out of that. Now take 67 issues of back story, trials, tribulations, incest, blasphemy, cannibalism, penis shaped heads, genitalia being removed by a dog bite, JESUS DE SADE!!!??, granma, TC f*%king a chicken... need I go on? That doesn't even include the goddamn grail storyline... maybe, just maybe if HBO did 67 episodes with a coupla specials about the Saint of Killers, or Good ol' Boys storyline, or you know who...The story has enough material for a Harry Potter length series of movies, and they would still have to leave things out for brevity's sake. No, if this is ever a movie it will be too watered down, there is to much to cram in to make a marketable movie. Although I would like to see an Arseface pez dispenser, or a Starr happymeal toy (with detachable penis?)

Crisis - Who's to say it's GOT to be done by a BIG studio? There are a lot of up-and-coming studios that are more cutting-edge and willing to take risks. Risks like 'Preacher' that a. have a following and b. would give them cred and publicity. The real problem wouldn't be finding a studio, it would be trying to get it past the MPAA! Anyone who can give 'It's Complicated' an 'R' rating just because the main character smokes a joint while giving the bloody 'Sherlock Holmes' a PG-13 needs to have their heads examined!

Preacher's following is its own niche in what's already a niche industry.

Not saying it can't be done, but right there, saying that the following it has already would immediately make it a success is incorrect. This isn't a property like X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman, or Superman, where more than half the population of the world has at least had some exposure to the stuff and isn't likely offended by most of it.

If this ever got made, it would be watered down to the point where it wouldn't be something that same following loves it for.

If they make Preacher as a movie, they'll catch hell from people like those of us here on this site, complaining that it wasn't faithful enough to the source material while catching hell from the mainstream about how it protrays religious icons.

If they don't make the movie, they'll catch hell from the people who aren't footing the bill on something that could be a huge, huge box office disappointment if it even got finished.

It's a no-win situation at the moment for anyone who would want to make it.

Not likely to see movement on this one anytime soon, I'm thinking, especially given the current economic climate. Someone has to fund this thing and take the risk that it could be a box office bomb, for any of the reasons listed above.

well done and thought out article, gotta respect the prose and talking points. Well-done... BUT, gotta disagree, an R-rated movie (or NC-17) is vastly different than an NBC weekly show.

NBC gotta please its paying advertisers-THATS why they (and other networks) will bend to "public" outcry (dont even get me started on 'astro-turf' campaigns staged by larger PACs or the like). People can't stop stuff from beamed into their living rooms over the 'waves (aside from changing the channel, but that would too easy now, wouldnt it??? >=P )

Im with ROR, its gonna take a director and studio with giant sized noots. Just think- Bad Lieutenent, Last Temptation of Christ, all of 'those types' of movies have had controversy, but ended up being made. Have faith.

As for 'keeping' it ours... thats sounds dangerously close to being an "us vs. them" mentality with the public. Share comics. Love them.

Preacher hast to much controversy in it i mean sex, violence and a preacher hunnting god? that´s just too much for any screen

HBO did cancel rome only because of the sex and violence...

look at my name below!!!!!!!

I agree with comicbookguy. I am also a Christian. I guess since I find Preacher objectionable and offensive, I am now disqualified as comicbook geek. Fine. But I also have to disagree with the premise that is based on the example of The Book of Daniel tv program being cancelled for being blasphemous. BROADCAST television vs. Cable and big screen films is a huge jump difference of production and demographics. Public access to broadcast tv is much more generally accessible than the other two. Is their hypocrisy in the treatment broadcast gets? Sure. The religious right (with which the left would identify me) can be very hypocritical in this area when it comes to broadcast tv. But that doesn't mean that this show wouldn't find a following on such cable-run series done by the likes of Showtime, and HBO. They've run numerous show in the last couple of decades with enough blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy to keep the fires of Hell stoked for many millenia to come.
So my objection is this; You're right that it wouldn't work in public broadcast TV. And I would agree with those objections. But if they could find a following, it WOULD work as a series on Showtime or HBO because they have proven to push smut and crap for years!

And about WB not taking risks, thats not entirely true either. They know how to hide behind other studio labels they way Disney does with Touchstone. Disney created Touchstone and Miramax with the express purpose of making a profit on more riskier films that their typical family-oriented filmed flair permits with the Disney name. WB, Sony, and Fox all do the same. They're not dumb. If they know that they can turn a profit on a controversial film, they will. They don't bow to the God of the bible. Their god is green. And I'm not talking about Gaia.

Ror,
I like WonderWoman even though her feminist ideals, and pagan beliefs clash heavily with my Christian beliefs and ideals. The difference is, the Preacher graphic novel mocks Christianity and exalts doing so. So, no. I would recieve no pleasure in reading it for recreation.
"I can never understand why people with strong religious beliefs can't just read/watch/listen as men and women first and foremost."
Perhaps its because our "religious beliefs" define what it means to be human. Destroy that foundation, and one would be like a piece of driftwood at sea.
"why rail against it so vehemently?"
Is my voice amongst others not entitled to give my account of a situation? If someone verbally blasted your family, nation, wife, or whatever it is that you hold dear, would you not respond?
Why is it Christians are expected to have their beliefs persecuted without recourse? If I said, Buddha was a gluttonous sloth, and Muhammed was murderous, woman-hating, pedophile, I would recieve a verbal tongue lashing like you wouldn't believe. There is a double standard for sure.

"freedom of speech seems to mean something to you guys."

You betcha! That's why I want an American to play Cappy! LOL

Seriously though. If you capped and traded speech, then how would ideas flourish? I'm all for free speech. Especially holocaust deniers, antisemitism, blasphemy, and/or racism. When its free, then its open to public debate to find the error in it. If you suppress it, then you allow error to persist without response.
Our Founding Fathers new the value of speech, that is why it was the first of Amendments.

This is true. I have not read it. I was basing my allusions to TheCrisisking's description of Christ as "in Garth Ennis's Preacher, the Messiah is a incest bred mentally handicapped ugly teenage boy, descended from a crucifixion-surviving Jesus Christ." Is that in any way misrepresented?
Now, I'm not some insane Dutch Muslim that would threaten anyone with death for making a cartoon strip(http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48674). I would not even slap a lawsuit for blasphemy on Ennis in Ireland! :) He has the right to speak and create blasphemous work.
Regarding Roman Catholicism, I certainly respect your feeling against the frocked pedophiles. I utterly do not understand what biblical basis they have for forbading their priests from marriage. Its actually UNBIBLICAL! They're told to have one wife (1 Timothy 3:2) in Scripture. Then it says to avoid those that forbid marriage (1 Tim. 4:3). Check it out. It doesn't make sense to me.
I swear, that "church" is one step from being a cult, imo.

P.S.
"I see a persons family as being slightly more important that a religion they choose to follow"
I'd agree, if we're talking about an organization. But I'm talking about Christ. A relationship with Him. If someone verbally started blasting TheMyth, TheHawk, InTylerweTrust, or LEEE (or whomever I'm neglecting to mention), you would come to their defense. I know it! I've seen it. Yet, I'm willing to bet you have never met them face to face. I've never met Christ face to face, either.

" if Christ was to post on these forums that would be a very different story"

He did post somewhere, its the New Testament.

"but thats still just a belief"

Yes, but on very overwhelmingly strong evidence.

Anyways, if it was a substory of something else, I wouldn't mind so much. But honestly, it doesn't really blow my skirt up as a compelling concept. I don't go looking for material that assualts my beliefs or glorifies those things that are diametrically opposed. I don't mind the challenge or else I would been frustrated long ago with our conversations. But I like you and our chats! :)

horse shit....

They can get away with putting this on TV, like late night HBO.
or Showtime.

The controversy would only help to bring in more viewers.

if only the studios would grow a set....