Movie News

Gossip is gossip is gossip when it comes to Hollywood news, but this little snippet caught my eye this morning which looks like it could be quite exciting. Preacher is an outstanding comic book series written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Steve Dillon, it's possibly my favourite ever comic-book series, and a movie version has been threatened for a long time.

The problem is that it's far too complex, far too fucked up and far too offensive to ever truly capture on screen - it features a corrupt god, an obese Allfather, a retarded messiah, sex investigators, vampires, beastiality, a suicide-deformed teenager (see below), gay angels, the Saint of Killers, a villain with a penis-shaped head and a cameo by Bill Hicks, to name but a few elements. And that's not mentioning the enormous and very bloody body count. Like I said, favourite ever comic book. For a while it looked like Tank Girl/Freddy's Dead director Rachel Talahay was going to make it, which was a bad move, and would star serial borefucker James Marsden. This was a very bad move.

Turns out, though, that HBO are on the cusp of making a mini-series out of it, using each issue as an episode. This is a very good idea, the only way you could come close to capturing the detail and subtext of Preacher is to follow the story very closely. The bad news is that Mark Steven Johnson - the piss-poor director behind Daredevil and Ghost Rider - is the man handling it. Yhen again, right now he's making all the right sounds:

"JOHNSON: I'm just trying to finish the pilot for Preacher at the moment. It's for HBO. It's VERY faithful to the comic, nearly exact. I think if it went, it would be one of the most amazing shows ever on television."

"I gave [HBO] the comics, and I said, 'Every issue is an hour. And it's exactly the book. ... I had my meeting yesterday, and Garth Ennis is on the phone, and we're all in the room, and Garth is like, 'You don't have to be so beholden to the comic.' And I'm like, 'No, no, no. It's got to be like the comic.' So that's what's so brilliant about it. It's just like, HBO, who else would do it but them? Nobody. ... HBO is just like, 'Bring it on.'"

Should I get excited? HBO make the best TV in the world, and if they're prepared to do justice to the comic by staying faithful, it could almost work. I dare not hope.



All the gotta do is cast it right now; Johnny Depp, Robert Carlyle, Cameron Diaz, Clint Eastwood, Patrick Stewart or nothing, thank you.

Mood swings

Three days ago I was stressed and irrational.
Two days ago I was maudlin and contemplative.
Yesterday I was angry and pissed off.
Today I'm optimistic and cheerful.

I think I might be pregnant.

Down and Out in France and Sheffield

Peace.

Been a long(ish) time, how've you been? I'm behind on everything. Bills, work, emails, money, updates, technology. Time. It's been a busy year so far. I am sat here, tired and longing for bed, but unable to hit the sack until it gets a little later. There's so much more I could be doing, but I'm choosing to catch spend my time watching episodes of Reno 911. I should have gone down to Isobels instead of updating this here blog. I'm a fool.

So we shot the new 65daysofstatic video yesterday. "Don't Go Down to Sorrow" took 10 hours to shoot in a very cold basement venue somewhere in deepest Sheffield. Save a bassist strucken with severe food poisoning who had to go home early, it all went very well. We put out the Mirimar Disaster video earier this month and completion on our Phlegm Comics collaboration 'Space Station' by Aaron Stout is due anyday, thus I've been spending quite alot of time producing and very little time actually making anything. It was really good to get to direct something again, even if it was just a case of saying yes to some questions, no to some others and watching a small monitor incessantly. Secretly, I think that's all there is to directing anyway.

All I have to do now is find a camera to transfer the footage, edit it and get it duplicated and down to the promotions company by 23rd February. Easy. Did I mention the work shifts, family birthdays, leaving parties, gigs and meetings I've also got lined up? Plus we have a secret staff only screening of Hot Fuzz on Thursday night... how can one man cope?

I did have a holiday, mind you. A skiing holiday at that, so I guess I can't complain too much. It's not like I'm overly stressed - work is really fun at the moment - it's just that there's a hell of a lot of things to get done at the same time, and it never appears to let up. I'd like to breathe a little more, but I guess you can breathe when you're dead.

Here's the Mirimar Disaster video. Produced by Medlo and directed by Paul Huxley.

Busy Bee

Hello

10% of my brain here. The other 90% has been distracted recently by such common burdens as work, money and life in general and has been negligent towards its blog responsibilities. Since there appears to be currently no way to gain the 90% attention, I thought I'd just pop out and assure everybody that it's all going swimmingly and not to worry. Whilst I am largely considered to be the introspective percentage of my brain, I have found my mass greatly decreasing of late until it has reached this minimal 10% threshold. I am hope to gain a further majority in the coming weeks, but make no mistake - it will be a long and painful battle.

Just stay alive, I will find you.

65/5/2007