Preacher - First draft is written says Sam Mendes

Chatting with MTV News this weekend about his upcoming film Away We Go, director Sam Mendes mentioned a few details about the status of his much-anticipated, big-screen version of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s comic book series, Preacher. He did say that screenwriter John August is moving along with his first draft.

“He’s doing pretty well,” Mendes told MTV News, “He’s about halfway through. There’s a long way to go yet, but I’m very, very hopeful. I think it could be amazing.”

The only other fact that Mendes is sure of at this point is that, while he can envision the film as a franchise, he’s going to give his all to make the first film great and self-contained.

“You have to try and get one really good and then, if you’re lucky, you can make a second or a third,” said Mendes. “You can create something that’s going to run. But I think that there’s certainly more than enough for one good movie and plenty left over.”

Though casting is still a long way off, Mendes seemed excited at the prospect of bringing the characters to life, saying the series has some “real good roles in there”.

I am a big, big Preacher fan (I've got all the original issues) and would love to see this on the big screen. The fact it could be spin out into more than one film is great news as it is a huge story and it would be foolish to chuck it all into one. Mind you a TV series would have been better for the story, but that was shelved a while back.

Now what do you want to see in the first Preacher film? Who should play Jesse, Tulip, Cassidy, The Saint of Killers, Herr Starr and Arseface? Do you think Mendes is the right choice to direct it?

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Shazam! Captain Marvel is back on according to Black Adam

A while back the script writer, John August, said that the Captain Marvel film was dead.

Now Dwayne Johnson, who was promoting Race to Witch Mountain, gave MTV an update on Captain Marvel:

“I think we’re starting from page one,” Johnson told MTV News. “From what I know talking to [director] Pete Segal, there were creative differences between the script that came in and what the studio’s ideas were.”

“That’s what happens when you start developing a script — there are so many people involved because it’s such a big project and everybody has their opinion in it creatively,” explained Johnson. “It’s too bad when you can’t come to an agreement.”

Despite the project’s troubles, Johnson said he’s still “amped-up” to play the role of the hero’s similarly super-powered nemesis, adding that Black Adam is the only comic book character he’s encountered thus far that appealed to him.

“I’m sure the movie eventually will get made the way that we all collectively want to make the movie,” said Johnson, “so when that happens, that’s going to be bad-ass.”

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Shazam! Captain Marvel has left the building

John August is the screenwriter who has been working on Shazam!, the big-screen adaptation of the DC comic character Captain Marvel since 2007. He has recently posted an article about the whole process. This is his description of the character:

Captain Marvel is a superhero roughly as powerful as Superman, minus the heat-vision and cold breath. What’s unique about the character is that in ordinary life, he’s teenager Billy Batson. Speaking the name of the wizard who gave him his powers (Shazam) calls down a magic thunderbolt, transforming him into the studly superhero. But he’s still a teenager in there.

If this to you sounds, “Like Big, but with superpowers,” then congratulations! You now understand Hollywood.

His script has gone through a number of changes due to different studios involvement, writers strikes etc. The first draft was

...a comedy with a lot of action. It mostly centers on Billy Batson getting and learning how to use his powers, and discovering what happened to his parents that left him an orphan. One of the appeals of the project is that Billy is a comic book hero who actually reads comic books.

Warner Bros then got hold of the rights and John writes

When we turned the new draft in to the studio, we got a reaction that made me wonder if anyone at Warners had actually read previous drafts or the associated notes. The studio felt the movie played too young. They wanted edgier. They wanted Billy to be older. They wanted Black Adam to appear much earlier. (I pointed out that Black Adam appears on page one, but never got a response)

He then wrote one final draft

I took them at their (written) word and delivered what they said they wanted: a much harder movie, with a lot more Black Adam. This wasn’t “Big, with super powers” anymore. It was Black Adam versus Captain Marvel, with a considerable push into dark territory and liminal badlands like Nanda Parbat. It wasn’t the action-comedy I’d signed on to write, but it was a movie I could envision getting made. The producer and director liked it, and turned it in to the studio while I was in France.

By the time I got back, the project was dead.

By “dead,” I mean that it won’t be happening. I don’t think it’s on the studio’s radar at all. It may come back in another incarnation, with another writer, but I can say with considerable certainty that it won’t be the version I developed.

So it looks as if the Big Red Cheese won't be in the cinema's anytime soon. Check out the full article over on John August's blog as it's a cracking read and he has many more articles and tips for any scriptwriters out there.

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