Cool News
No PREACHER For HBO!!
I am – Hercules!!
Mark Steven Johnson (“Daredevil”), who was developing the comic-book series “Preacher” as a series for HBO, tells Comics Continuum the project is not going forward:
"We were budgeting and everything and it was getting really close to going," Johnson told The Continuum. "But the new head of HBO felt it was just too dark and too violent and too controversial. Which, of course, is kind of the point!”
For those unfamiliar, Preacher is a DC/Vertigo comic book series about a clergyman who becomes possessed by an angel-demon creature with God-like powers. Read the Wikipedia entry here.
Find all of Comics Continuum’s story on the matter here.
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I was planning on adding HBO as a channel when this show came on. Oh, well, thanks HBO for saving me a few bucks!
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I liked the pilot. It was like a hick version of Rushmore on crack.
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instead!
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Does anyone think that the Vampire thing looks like a total flop. And isn't dark the most successful thing for the cable shows? I think it's time for me to switch to Showtime, for sunshine happy shows like Dexter and Weeds!
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You knew he was going to fuck this up to all hell.
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... but I heard about this news on Wednesday.
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That would be spectacular as a TV series. I know we've been overrun with zombies (ahem) in pop media, but I'd still pay a lot of money to watch a zombie-based TV series. Too bad that one zombie show was cancelled...I've never read PREACHER, but HBO cancelling something because it's too violent? Wha-wha-what???
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Aug 29, 2008 12:33:57 PM CDT
WAS THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE TOO CONTROVERSIAL ASSHOLE
by guy who got a headache and accidentally
SHOWS SOME BALLS YOU GUTLESS SOULLESS BUSINESS MAJOR SCUM PEDLER
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My name is Mark Steven Johnson and I have this niffty property you might be interested in..... If HBO passed on Preacher they will pass on The Walking Dead.
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I guess Survivor news couldn't wait, could it? Oh, and fuck HBO.
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Jesse? Tulip? Cass?
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As opposed to gangsters and mobsters shooting and fucking each other every week on The Sopranos and The Wire? The yjus tthough this was too close to Carnivale in tone, and everyone knows how that ended up.
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They'd probably tone it down and screw it up anyway; remember, these are the guys who wanted a "friendly" mini-series of "Watchmen".
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HBO need to nail this down pronto. HBO was all about alternative diverse deep intelligent programming. If this new head was at HBO when they had 5to make the choice to prodice Carnivale, would this new head have ruine it by sdaying Carnivale is too "dark and violent"? See my point? If the new head of HBO doesnt have the balls or the intellgence to cope with an intellgent and unique property like Preacher then he shouldnt be at HBO. This guy needs to be removed before he turns HBO into a Fox clone . Is this what Americans want? No. HBO needs to have independence from kneejerk reactions to allow good stories and programming to be cultivated under a independent and protective environment. HBO needs a kick in the balls over this.
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Gunning for Ari instead of God.
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I am glad that butcher MSJ had this project fall apart on him. He let the studios butcher his original vision for Daredevil and Ghost Rider was flat out awful. Just when I thought every comic was going to get converted to the big screen, even stuff that didn't quite seem viable to film (i.e WANTED, Kick-Ass or Watchmen) I forgot about the unfilmable gem known as PREACHER. (However, I must say Garth Ennis' screenplay adaption he wrote himself is excellent)
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Crap, I asked a few weeks back in the tb, whatever happened to Preacher.
Dammit, its too bad. Thinking of all the shows that HBO has now, that this could have been their flagship. Really glad others like FX, AMC, Showtime are coming up with quality tv shows.
HBO, bunch of morons. -
I'm going to go blow my face off with a shotgun, then become a celebrity!
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That was optioned by HBO as well - I'm wondering how that potential series will fare under the new leadership. Doesn't sound like this guy will be a big fan of regicide and incest.
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Well this certainly explains why this once great networks' programming is in the shitter. Whoever this new head of HBO is you can be he sucks cock by choice. By choice, I say! Fucking hooplehead.
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Vampires are the new gays. That's basically it: the show is one long metaphor for discrimination. If you've ever read an X-Men book in the last 40 years it will all be painfully familiar to you.
Not to be anti-gay or anything--in all honestly I don't care what a persons sexuality is--but when it sure seems like it's affecting programming choices like it is at HBO (TrueBlood, this new show about the guy with the huge schlong, all the touchy-feely therapist shows) it just seems wrong. Preacher is "too dark and violent"? Would this new head of programming have said the same thing about The Sopranos? My guess is yes. -
There seems to be a disproportionate amount of "news" that only focus things Herc likes (SNL, anyone?) Why was this site one of the last "geek" sites to announce the Preacher news? Are there really that many reality show fans who read AICN that we need constant updates on American Idol, Survivor and Amazing Race? Really? It just seems like the tv side of things is much less about "cool" TV news and much more about Herc talking only about things he likes, and then linking a shitload of stuff to Amazon.com.
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Maybe it's for the best. As much as i was excited about Preacher becoming an HBO series i must say i had my doubts. Mainly about Mark Steven Johnson, since the man has proved that he can't direct nor write. But for some reason i do not think this is the last we've heard about Preacher turning into a live-action feature. It's too fucking brilliant not too be.
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And Preacher is one of those comics,most idiots in this world need to pick up a book anyway.
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does someone need to tell this jackass that he WORKS FOR AITCH BEE OH?!
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That should also stay as a comic series...NOTHING MORE.
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Anywho... Clearly the new president of HBO is a brilliant man who will do very well... And by that I mean he'll be replaced before the year is out.
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...were the 2 best things HBO has ever done. And they didnt have the balls to go for round 2 on either. Showtime used to only be known for late night soft core, but now it is rapidly becoming one of the best channels.
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But I'd still like to see it.
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HBO + Preacher + Mark Steven Johnson = FUCKING DISASTER
I'd rather have no Preacher than have whatever MSJ would have come up with. He could do as he said and present the shows word-for-word, and he'd still fuck them up. -
or HBO - It's not your cup of Tea!
or how about: HBO - The Place for Good TV...for people who think that ABC Family is too dark and controversial.
You can bet your ass that Ice and Fire will be kicked next. Instead they will give greenlight for 3 Sex and the City Clones with Horseface Parker and 5 remakes of british shitcoms. -
Seriously, Garth himself said that he worked closely with Johnson on the script and that it was completely faithful. No wonder it got sacked. At least MSJ walked away rather than turn it into something else. Fuck HBO.
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Since this is a thread about HBO programming, I must say it. Sorry if the "fan-trolling" gets old, but maybe, just maybe, someone who makes programming decisions at HBO will actually spend a few minutes here to understand the desires of their viewers. Talk about a pointess exercise, but what else am I gonna do? Work?
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This particular director has proven he's poison to comic books so I'm not remotely depressed. While I'm thinking about it I liked most of the series even if it did get really repetitive. I just found Cassidy and the Saint of Killers really fascinating characters. Too bad they didn't try to make God more interesting. If you're going to blaspheme and make Him your bad guy at least give him some character. He wasn't even drawn all that well, although that's the story for almost all the supernatural creatures now that I think of it.
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Wow, the former leader of controversial content is now worried about offending people?
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Maybe Preacher can be done later on, and if so, I look forward to it.
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1) I don’t get the sense Herc sat on this Preacher news intentionally. Also, clearly, a lot of people didn’t see the news on Comics Continuum until Herc linked to it.
2) I don’t care for American Idol (I don’t think Herc does either IIRC) but many fans of this site do.
3) Herc’s column is obviously one of the most popular, but hardly the only one; millions and millions of sites on the Internet cover TV. If you “don’t get” Herc’s column, you can still get your TV news at TWOP or CHUD or someplace else that covers only the shows you like. If you can't find one, start one.
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I had to suffocate one of those whilst attending to my duties at the Gem. Hell of a fuckin' thing puttin' down a man of God.Well, if those cocksuckers at HBO are looking for a fuckin' project to put their ever so fuckin' astute minds to, how's about payin' a housecall to the good fuckin' people of Deadwood?
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Aug 29, 2008 2:05:42 PM CDT
No surprise here. Sub to Showtime if you want good programing
by greatczarsghost
HBO no longer takes any chances with shows that might cost more than what it would two illegal painters would charge to paint the mens room. That's why we get junk like Concords and Curb your enthusiamsm. They don't cost anything to produce. Showtime has been the new HBO for at least thee years now.
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I'm leery of an Ice and Fire series. But if it were on HBO then at least that sappy hack Peter Jackson wouldn't get his fat clumsy fingers all over it. Admit it, LOTR was sooooo gay.
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Weren't Vampires the old gays? Isn't the new gays blue aliens. If Truman Capote were alive would he agree? Would Truman Capote hang around on AICN talkbacks? An interesting question...
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Because he wasn't a virgin. The advantage of being gay is that even someone that looks like Truman Capote can get laid.
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would make an amazing television series
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someone who calls themselves johnnyangel. With a fuckin' name like that, you just might as well advertise that you're into specialty acts.
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You suck cock by choice.
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Awww, what's the matter? Did I stumble upon some sensitive spot that you keep to yourself when grabbing ankle?
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Since you didn't get my reference to the show that you took your name from, I see no way that I communicate with you, even to the extent of trading mock insults.
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What happened to HBO?
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If so, would it still get greenlit today?
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You just proved it's possible for a person to be a sexist, a homophobe and an asshole all at the same time.
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Oh, I got the fuckin' reference. And just so there ain't too much hard feelin's help yourself to some free whiskey. Pussy is still full price though.Huzzah!
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What about peaches and cinnamon? Free as well? P.S. - Preacher on HBO had the potential to be awesome. Oh well.
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"Fuck That" I was going to say. This doesn't bode well for Carnivale's return.
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As long as that cinnamon is fuckin' authorized.
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Aug 29, 2008 3:43:28 PM CDT
"My Cock Is In The Bitches Mouth ...
by fathermcgruderkicksassforthelord
... literally."
Too dark, too violent?
Sigh. -
Sigh @ my sigh.
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Showtime is where it's at. Bring on the new season of Dexter already!
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Though I'd rather see no version of Preacher than a bad version.
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Not a Preacher fan but sorry to see this not getting made. Some friends and family love it. Perhaps it should look at Showtime to get this project moving.
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If HBO nayed like bitches over the darkness and the violence and whatever, it sounds like maybe it was on the right track. Oh vell.
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Quoting Preacher in the TB:
"This is not the way the wrld should be." -
World.
<-- for the fail. -
- Allfather D'aronique.
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really is a woman. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6549519.html
So was the last, but at that time CEO Albrecht was the real boss. also interesting:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117966287.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1
----David Simon, creator of "The Wire" and net's upcoming miniseries "Generation Kill," said he thought some showrunners might be worried about the added levels in HBO's new hierarchy.
"If they all stick a finger in my eye at the same moment it could be like working for a network, and it could be bad," he said. "But I'm not sure it will be that."--------- -
another reason i canceled it after john adams mini-series. aside from generation kill and the war mini-series coming next year, hbo has turned into Lifetime 2.0 under the new people at HBO.
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Over the years HBO has had some of the best shows on TV even though they didn't always bring in a lot of viewers--Deadwood, The Wire, Sopranos, Big Love, Carnivale--something tells me their gonna try and go mainstream now to bring in a larger audience.
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Aug 29, 2008 5:16:28 PM CDT
What might be my favorite single page of a comic book ever
by toshiro-solo
Huff, huff, huff, FUCK! Huff, huff, huff, FUCK! Huff, Huff, Huff, FUCK! Damn I love me some Preacher. Think I'm gonna have to go back and re-read from square one. Now where are those Absolute editions???
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and collectively everything controversial in The Preacher has been done (ripped-off) everywhere else. Where is the shock now?
HBO has disappeared ever since Sopranos ended. So well done HBO for killing The Preacher. -
Never saw or heard about the show when it came out, but now their showing reruns. I like the show even though their is a little too much dialogue and not enough action. Can comic books be made into decent tv shows? Jermiah's cool but i've never read the comic. Smallville sucks.
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I haven't seen Elektra or Ghost Rider, but based on Daredevil and what I've heard about the other movies this guy sucks. Maybe canceling Preacher was a blessing in disguise.
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Words cannot even express how disapointed and angry I am about this. I was looking forward to seeing this on HBO so much, and even went as far to write to them a couple of times to voice my support for it becoming reality. I just find it so hard to believe that after controvertial shows like OZ, Sopranos, and Tell me you love me, HBO thinks Preacher will be pushing the bar too much. It has to be the whole religious aspect of it. Anyway, Showtime really seems to have taken over the whole "Original Series" thing over the last year or so; maybe they'll be smart enough to grab this and run with it. HBO can't even hold a candle to Dexter and Brotherhood with anything that they have right now or are about to add to their line up. I know a lot of people out here have already said this, but I will now be calling Direct TV and cancelling HBO.
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a faithful version of Preacher would require. Even their most expensive series (Tudors) looks cheap ass compared to Rome, Carnivale or Deadwood. Also they have already greenlit an adaption of The Exterminators-comics.
If HBO doesn't hire another showrunner for a complete rewrite Preacher will most likely be dead for TV. -
Whatever bullshit MSJ was told or was instructed to tell, it is just that: bullshit. I doubt it was the "darkness" or the "violence" of Preacher that caused the suits' balls to shrivel. I 99% guarantee it was budget. Content was not the issue when they cancelled Deadwood, it wasn't the issue when they cancelled Carnivale. It was budget. Money rules at the HoBO.
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They should make more light-hearted fare, like their major successes, the sopranos (great comedy) the wire (it's trivial you can just dip in and out), Deadwood (No need to finish it!)
By The way the tone here is sarcastic, get your head out of your ass and take a look at the programming that got you where you are. P.S bring back Carnival and Deadwood -
I've just read the previous talk backs and would just like to say, "stop being a cock sucking san francisco cocksucker and start being a cock sucker who makes good programs" Programming for women will never work because it's always the men who order cable. And that's a proven fact. It's in the bible.
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It wasn't the source material, the budget, or the controversy. The executives saw your previous work and it dawned on them, "What the fuck were we thinking".
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Dexter + Brotherhood + Californication + Weeds = What HBO should be, but no longer is.
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too bad
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***SPOILER***
They probably got to the part were a guy fucks a giant woman made of butchered meat and freaked.
***********************
Tell CEO Bill Nelson that he sucks - bill.nelson@hbo.com or call him at (212) 512-1000 ext. 1204
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with each new program on Showtime, they close the quality gap.
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Does HBO not get what worked for it in the past, both critically and commercially? Wasn't OZ violent, dark and controversial? Wasn't The Sopranos? Wasn't The Wire? Wasn't Deadwood? Not that it matters, it had the wrong guy in charge, and had he amazed me and done a good job, it never would have made it to a full conclusion anyway.
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...and drive out the maniac Bullock! Rise up and murder him!! HBO is bloody worthless now. The only reason I have to watch it now is the 'The Pacific', when that finally wraps production that is. Generation Kill is good too, although it's over now. PS-HBO, update frickin OnDemand...it's still only showing to episode 3.
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Sorry, I love that show. I know it's cheesy, but I do. Prurient interest + great characters + rom-com trappings = happy necgray
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HUGE sophomore slump. I hope the third season shows an improvement.
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first off, preacher is not too dark...its fucking hilarious...second, while i believe that the new honcho of hbo is an idiot, and is running the network into the ground, i have a feeling that msj screwed the pooch on this...plus, it is possible that the suits didnt see the built in fan base as being enuf to create a real buzz....btw, from what i have seen of true blood, it really looks like shit
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Ditto
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But what in hell has Mark Steven Johnson ever done that has warranted anyone taking his side over HBOs? The guy is a hack at best.
Daredevil was a huge turd of a film and Preacher would not have been much better. Bravo HBO!!
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Not necessarily because of the material is too dark or controversial, but because it was being handled by the retard who made Daredevil and Ghost Rider, two of the worst movie I think have ever been made with serious budgets. HBO is saving a lot of money not developing a show that would have been total crap anyway. Johnson has probably moved to tv because no one wants him to put another frame of his uninspired garbage on celluloid.
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there
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Seeing how it was news a week ago!
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using aliases throw the words coward and pussy around. I'm lancearmstrongsothernut and I declare HBO to be spineless weaklings. WTF? It's kind of like Bush's cabinet questioning Kerry's military service.
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Aug 30, 2008 11:41:16 AM CDT
WHOA.... "Too Dark, too violent, too controversial" for HBO????
by scrivener
Oh god, just thinking about that sentence makes me feel sick. HBO was where I went to see magnificent censorship-free shows that wouldn't otherwise have ever been made. Hearing something like that about HBO is like finding out that the earth really is flat, after all.
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when even a chimp could find out many things about you from simply using google search and your real name, few people use a real name online.
go figure. -
Bravely spoken
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so in the wake of Dark Knight's huge success this tool decides not to go dark or controversial. What an idiot! So a guy running around with a BIG DICK and porking people with a title called "Hung" isn't controversial?
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HBO would have watered down preacher and screwed up another great comic franchise, I say give this property to Verhoven or Ridley Scott or even Todd Solonz to run with,no holds barred
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The guy who crapped out the turd that was Daredevil shouldn't be allowed within 500 yards of this project anyway.
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They have turned into a right bunch of cocksuckers. They'll be showing reruns of The Waltons and The Brady Bunch soon. Fuckers
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seeing Daredevil and Ghost Rider. Maybe the controversy they were avoiding is Mark Steven Johnson ruining yet another comic book franchise. If this thing gets resurrected somewhere else, hopefully Johnson won't be aboard.
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Fucking cocksuckers, because of you I have to actually consider shit like reading books or going outside now, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU RIGHT IN THE EAR, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!
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This is good news. The further we can seperate Mark Steven Johnson and Preacher, the better. Johnson is the very definition of a dangerous hack. He fucked up both Daredevil and Ghost Rider, and I don't want this guy anywhere near Preacher. Maybe some years from now, we'll finally get a great Preacher series, but I'd rather have nothing than whatever it was that Johnson had in store.
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Figures! ball-less fuck. Fancy clothes, fancy cars and no balls. Nice job HBO, we pay for you guys to give us something different and you wus out. Pussy!
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Its not that its too dark and violent, its the religious spine of the story. You do anything that involved in religion (ESPECIALLY something that paints God in a negative light) and you're inviting a world of pain. Every religious organization in the world would be on your ass. Those who have read the comic know it would be worth it if done right, but would you take the chance on something Johnson is putting together? To go out on a limb for anything he does just seems silly.
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HBO or Showtime as much as we'll be talking about AMC. Breaking Bad is like Weeds only actually good and not full of shit, and Mad Men is the best thing going on tv right now. Can't wait to see what they do with The Prisoner...
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wasn't James Marsden very interested in playing Jesse Custer? I'm not saying he sounds like an ideal choice, but I saw him do a panel at a con and he seemed very passionate about the series and the character, and I'd rather see someone like that get the role than someone who looks a little more obviously like the character but is just taking another job... oh well, it's a brilliant series, regardless of whether or not it ever gets adapted to the screen.
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Big man at the keyboard. Away from the computer and in the real world, you're a pussy. Only here can you exercise your frail ego. You know it. I know it. Everyone around you knows it.
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That sounds like a much more likely reason. Are you people actually upset about this? The man responsible for "Simon Birch," "Daredevil" and "Ghost Rider" does not get to inflict his perverse ineptitude on this as well. That is good news. I think that fucker is actually lying. Look at the shit HBO has aired so far. Oz was their flagship show for christ's sake.
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For chrissakes, read the interview, people. MSJ said he learned his lesson about comics adaptations and he was doing a fairly straight adaptation of every issue of Preacher, but HBO couldn't handle the dark. They wanted him to do a rewrite to lighten it up, but he refused. Takes balls, if you ask me: to turn down your own HBO show because you respect the material too much.
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Sigh. What could have been.
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Give it a few years, and maybe somebody who isn't Mark Stephen Johnson can put a Preacher project together. I don't like coming on here to hate, but the guy is clearly a huge comic book fan with very little talent. Daredevil and Ghost Rider both amount to really shitty love letters to their properties, in the same artistic vein of shitty youtube "look Buffy and Clark Kent are in love" fake previews set to songs everybody I know has always hated.
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...*must* play Tulip if they ever get the series off the ground. I interviewed her back when she was doing Blade: The Series and she actually *is* Tulip. Total gun-nut, her dad bought her one for Christmas, for heaven's sake...
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She's hot and all that, but she doesn't have half the personality that Katee does. She's kinda boring, and Tulip is an electric character. Fantasy casting: Lance Henriksen for Saint of Killers, Jeremy Sisto for Preacher, James McAvoy for Cassidy?
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...should be played by any scrawny young Irish actor they can find. There's no shortage of them in Dublin, I should know, I went to film school there.
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What we need is a Judge Dredd show on HBO. Or Walkin' fuckin' Dead. And Invincible too. Oh and Savage Dragon.
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what's your real name tough guy?
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No balls.
And yet they remake shit like Superman over an over. Doesn't anyone have any old fasioned guts any more? It's pathetic the way these fuckers don't take any risks, but all line up to be second. Spineless the lot of them.
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