"Preacher" dead at HBO

According to Mark Steven Johnson, the director of Daredevil and Ghost Rider who was attached to developing Preacher for HBO, the project is officially dead.

Johnson had this to say:

We were budgeting and everything and it was getting really close to going. 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!

No shit. He continues:

It was a very faithful adaptation of the first few books, nearly word for word. They offered me the chance to redevelop it but I refused. I've learned my lesson on that front and I won't do it again. So I'm afraid it's dead at HBO.

While it is sad that the project won't move ahead at the network (HBO was probably the only place where it would have worked), I'm not sure the man who made Ghost Rider inspires all that much confidence anyway. I do admire his integrity in refusing to redevelop it, though. That was classy.

Read the article here.