The world still isn't ready for Preacher

Preacher is in my mind one of the best comics ever written, and dare I say should sit pretty high on the all time literature list too. To sum the series up in a brief synopsis wouldn't do it justice, so you'll have to trawl the inter-webs if you want the tale in a nutshell, but I'd serious recommend going out and at least picking up the 'Gone To Texas' graphic novel.

HBO were allegedly working on the series, which frankly had me extremely excited, although the excitement was based entirely on my love of Band Of Brothers and The Wire. After 4 years of sitting on the franchise HBO deemed the subject matter of Preacher too controversial and axed the production. Currently John August (Titan AE, Charlies Angels, Corpse Bride) is working on a screenplay for Sony Pictures. But this is just one of many many other attempts at bringing the series from the page to the screen, all previous attempts have failed, and I have no doubt that this one will as well.

Although Preacher is a fantastic comic, it is in many ways an impossible task to bring it to a broader movie going (or indeed tv going) audience. The structure is there and the script is practically already written, needing only to be lifted off of the page. However the subject matter is what leaves this project in design purgatory, with studios understandably cautious to release a film that has the potential to kick up such a strong backlash from religious communities. The problem is that people can take creative work as personal attacks, for example when The DaVinci Code was released people were freaking out at the blasphemy of the entire concept, without taking into account that no-one other than themselves were proclaiming this as a factual reference book. The fires were only further fuelled when the movie adaptation was released, so it is no wonder that studios are cautious as to what they are seen to support.

Until the world is ready to accept works of fiction as works of fiction and nothing more then Preacher will have to remain a comic, not that this is a bad thing of course.

"Get dead **** face" - the new "to be or not to be"?

Swearing is cool, let's face it, dropping the F-bomb can turn the tide of any major event. If Martin Luther King Jr had anounced that it was about to hit the fan rather than telling us he had a dream things well have turned out even better...

Atleast that seems to be the opinion of the 'gifted' writer behind the Rogue Warrior game. Now war books aren't something I can say I read a lot of (although I did really enjoy Jarhead) so I've never read one of Dick Marcinko's books, maybe the insane amount of cursing is a trademark of his literature, of that I can't be certain, but there has to be a point where a dialogue writer decides to aim his script solely at 14-olds.

That said it is entirely possible to actually cross into comedy in these situations, if the writer is able to put in some nudges and winks that its actually all satire then the entire experience can become overwhelmingly possitive (see House Of The Dead: Overkill for a videogame example and Shoot 'Em Up for a cinematic example).

The other challenge Rogue Warrior faces is that it features almost no redeeming features. Had the gameplay been exceptional, or the plot been involving enough for the language to seem a natural part of the experience, then maybe the embarrassing over use of swearing wouldn't have grated so much. But that isnt the case.

Strangely the credits suggest that someone on the development team has a sense of humour, so rather than having to struggle through the two and a half hours it takes to beat the game (seriously!) check out the video below, to see that no matter how bad something my get there will always be someone out there who is able to salvage at least a part of it.
Obviously it goes without saying the following video features strong language, and weak script writing.