Last year Empire talked to Sam Mendes about his planned Preacher adaptation and today, in between asking questions about his latest movie Away We Go, they got the latest on the project from the Oscar winning director. And the good news is that Preacher is inching closer to fruition - and that there is a script.
"It's getting closer," says Mendes. "I've seen a script and it's very good. We're a little further down the road than when I last spoke to you."
Created by comic-book wizards Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, the titular Preacher is Jesse Custer, a Southern priest inhabited by a heavenly being called Genesis in incident that kills off his entire congregation and sends him onto a demented hunt for an explanation. From God
If all this fire and brimstone sounds like an unusual choice for a man who's specialised in beautifully-crafted explorations of American family life, rest very assured for Mendes is a Preacher fanboy: "I love graphic novels - Road To Perdition was based on graphic novel - so I'm used to that form and Preacher is absolutely brilliant. I certainly feel it's a movie."
"It's funny, it's violent as hell, it's extremely blasphemous and profane, but it has an amazingly skilful tone," says Mendes. "I met Garth Ennis and I'm just a huge fan of it."
Now Sam has a few more movies to be done but im hoping this is a ray of light for this project.....
Teabag out :P