Perfect timing! I finally finished reading the entire Preacher series last week after having been stuck at the two-thirds mark for months and here we have an update from the director of the film adaptation giving an update on the status of the film.

It sounds like the project is almost there – it’s so close, I can feel it. Preacher has been in development hell for a very long time (a decade now) and you can read my previous posts on the history of Preacher to find out how it was supposed to come at us in the form of an HBO series, which it would do for perfectly during these times.

In talking to Empire, Mendes revealed that he has read a complete draft of the script and he hinted that the movie may not be too far away.

American Beauty director Sam Mendes, along with company partners Pippa Harris and Caro Newling, recently signed a two-year first-look deal with Focus Features. The deal with Focus (who were the distributors on Mendes’ recent flick Away We Go) includes the acquisition of two projects that could end up being directed by Mendes. But what’s most interesting is the lack of a mention of the graphic novel adaptation Preacher, which Mendes has already been signed on to direct.

The last we heard about the Preacher film project was from last October when Sam Mendes (American Beauty) was signed on to direct the project. At the time, it seemed we may actually be getting some forward movement on the movie but we’ve not heard anything since… until now with this little interview.

Preacher is based on the successful mid-nineties Vertigo comic series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon and it was set to start development on becoming a feature film back in 1998. After years of not getting it done, it was later set to become an HBO series in 2006 which of course fell through after some management changes led to a desire to avoid the controversial content. Now, it is again to become a film. The project has been in development hell for over a decade now but I’m confident that it’s finally on the right track and what perfect timing since we’re in the era of comic-book movies.

It’s been confirmed that John August (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish) is going to write the screenplay for the upcoming Tim Burton produced Frankenweenie. The film is based on Burton’s 1984 live-action short film that he made while he was a film school student.

Surprisingly, this version will not be live-action but done in the Burton-favored style of stop-motion animation AND will be filmed in 3D. But what’s most surprising is that it will be in black and white, like the original.

A modern black and white, stop-motion, 3D film? Sounds interesting. In case you haven’t heard of Frankenweenie before, the basic plot is the story of a man who brings his dog back to life after it is killed by a car.

Columbia Pictures has acquired the rights to Vertigo’s popular and highly-acclaimed comic series Preacher and has attached Sam Mendes to direct the film adaptation.

Sam Mendes, who won an Oscar for directing American Beauty, will not be the first director who has been signed to direct this project. Before being picked up by Columbia, Preacher has sat in development-limbo for nearly a decade.

The comic series, which was published from 1995-2000, was created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. The film rights of the series were originally sold back in 1998 to Electric Entertainment with Rachel Talalay directing a script written by Ennis. After suffering through investor issues due to the controversial religious content, Ennis approached Kevin Smith and company to help finance and produce the film. The project got to the point where James Marsden was signed on as the lead back in 2002 but eventually the project was abandoned.