Sam Mendes Is NOT The Director Of PREACHER. Scribe John August Is Interested In The Job

This is a bummer, I was actually anticipating Sam Mendes taking on this project. Back in September, Mendes said that the adapted screenplay by John August was very good and that they were close to making things happen with PREACHER. But that’s not the case anymore..

Collider had a chat with producer Neal Moritz (XXX, Fast and Furious) who’s also producing PREACHER based on the Vertigo graphic novel by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon and he revealed that Mendes is officially OFF The project. Why? You can thank or not thank that BOND 23 that Mendes has been attached to for quite some time now… that same BOND 23 that still doesn’t know if itself even ever going to move forward because MGM’s mess has been holding it back.
But fret not, Moritz is looking for a director to handle PREACHER and one being considered, one who’s seriously wanting the job is the movie’s screenwriter John August (Big Fish) who directed the 2007 drama The Nines starring Ryan Reynolds.

The story is about Jesse Custer, a down-and-out preacher in the small Texas town of Annville. Custer was accidentally possessed by the supernatural creature named Genesis in an incident which killed his entire congregation and flattened his church.

Custer, driven by a strong sense of right and wrong, goes on a journey across the United States attempting to (literally) find God, who abandoned Heaven the moment Genesis was born, to hold him accountable for negligence. He also begins to discover the truth about his new powers, which allow him to command the obedience of those who hear his words. He is joined by his old girlfriend Tulip O’Hare, as well as a hard-drinking Irish vampire named Cassidy.
Preacher
During the course of their journeys, the three encounter enemies and obstacles both sacred and profane, including: the Saint of Killers, an invincible, quick-drawing, perfect-aiming, come-lately Angel of Death answering only to the authority of God Himself; a serial-killer called the ‘Reaver-Cleaver’; The Grail, a secret organization controlling the governments of the world and protecting the bloodline of Jesus;