Happy Halloween to me! My favorite comic book of all-time is finally back on the rails as Columbia Pictures has picked up the rights to Preacher, the popular 1990s Vertigo series, for an adaptation to be directed by Sam Mendes. I would have loved to see this as an HBO series, but at this point I’m willing to take it in any form I can. Read on for the skinny.
Neal Moritz and his Original Films banner are producing with Kickstart Prods.’ Jason Netter.

Created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, “Preacher,” which ran from 1995-2000, told 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, the preacher teamed with an old girlfriend and a hard-drinking Irish vampire and set out on a journey across America to find God — who apparently had abandoned his duties in heaven — and hold him accountable for his negligence.

Getting a “Preacher” project off the ground has long been a favorite among the comic book literati in town, though none has been blessed to see completion. The project was previously set up as a one-hour series at HBO but was put into turnaround. Mark Steven Howard wrote a pilot which Howard Deutch was attached to direct.

A previous movie version, to have been produced by Kevin Smith’s View Askew, among others, got to the casting stage, with James Marsden attached for the title role and a reported budget of $25 million.

The new “Preacher” has no writers on board, though Mendes will lead the search while putting the finishing touches on his drama “Revolutionary Road, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet and due Dec. 26.

While comic book movies might seem as common as Joker Halloween costumes, CAA-repped Mendes directed one of this century’s early comic adaptations, 2002’s “Road to Perdition.”

Moritz and Netter are working adapting another Ennis comic book, “The Boys,” which also is set up Columbia.