Vertigo's Preacher (D.J. Caruso Confirmed to Direct)

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Columbia Pictures announces today that Sam Mendes, of Road to Perdition, Jarhead, and the upcoming Revolutionary Road, will direct an adaptation of Vertigo's Preacher comic series. No writer has been hired yet, but Mendes himself will search for one over the next few months. Neal Moritz (who has been in the news a lot recently) will be producing. The comic tells the story of a down-and-out Texas preacher possessed by Genesis, a supernatural entity conceived by the unnatural coupling of an angel and a demon. Given immense powers, he teames up with an old girlfriend and a hard-drinking Irish vampire to set out on a journey across America to find God - who apparently had abandoned his duties in heaven.

Merging with a bizarre spiritual force called Genesis, Preacher Jesse Custer becomes completely disillusioned with the beliefs that he had dedicated his entire life to. Now possessing the power of the word, an ability to make people do whatever he utters, Custer begins a violent and riotous journey across the country. Joined by his girlfriend Tulip and the hard drinking Irish vampire Cassidy, the Preacher loses faith in both man and God as he witnesses dark atrocities and improbable calamities during his exploration of America.

If it sounds badass, that's because it is. Preacher was one of the most popular comics in the late 1990s that has been a candidate for adaptation for years, taking the form an HBO series and feature produced by Kevin Smith, but neither of which ever came to fruition. This latest iteration has nothing to do with the past projects and will be adapted from the ground up again. It sounds like it could be a very badass story, especially in the hands of Sam "Kate & Leo Reunited" Mendes.