‘I Am Number Four’ director says he’s still signed on to ‘Preacher’

(CBR)  It”s been two and a half years since DJ Caruso signed on to helm “Preacher”, the long-discussed adaptation of the acclaimed Vertigo comics series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, and it”s been just as long since we”ve seen any movement on the project. However, the director said he hopes to have “good news” about the film soon. Or perhaps soon-ish.

“I”m still attached to “Preacher” and we”re wrestling with Sony because I got another movie at Sony called “Invertigo”, which is a big action film we”re trying to get going this summer,” Caruso told I Am Rogue while promoting “Standing Up”. “So “Preacher” got put on the back burner, but we”re still involved with “Preacher” and hopefully we”ll have some good news on that soon. Todd August wrote a great script. I think it”s one of those features that has to kind of go through the studio system if it”s going to be made for a certain price. So we”re kind of revisiting a way to approach making the movie in the right way.

That seems par for the course for “Preacher”, which has had a long, tumultuous relationship with Hollywood that dates back to the mid- to late “90s, when “Tank Girl” director Rachel Talalay was attached to the project. A planned adaptation has passed from director to director, studio to studio and from film to television to back to film. In late 2006, HBO announced it had signed Mark Steven Johnston and Howard Deutch to write and direct a television pilot. However, by August 2008, new network executives had abandoned the planned series. Two months later Columbia Pictures bought the film rights for Sam Mendes, who left the project in 2010 to direct “Skyfall”.

The 66-issue series centers on Jesse Custer, a down-and-out Texas preacher who sets off on a journey, accompanied by his hitwoman ex-girlfriend Tulip O”Hare and the hard-drinking Irish vampire named Cassidy, to quite literally find God, who has abandoned Heaven and his responsibilities.

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