Posted by sean at threshold5n.jpmorgan.com on June 03, 2002 at 14:47:58:
In Reply to: Sweetness... posted by Isis on June 03, 2002 at 14:18:08:
: I don't see how they can keep the Arseface character. But it's hard to do the story without him, either. What a DILEMMA!
: I'm sort of happy because for a series of crazy reasons, I never read the very last issue of that series. I read every special issue and every regular one except that one (and I'm not a big comic fan, I read them all in about a week from a friend's collection). So it's gonna be a big surprise, don't spoil it for me.
The movie was at least initially supposed to condense the events of the first TPB, which is, I believe, issues 1-7 ... possibly 6 or 8, though, I forget. And I know there was talk at one point of jettisoning some of something and incorporating Jesse's family into the first film ... but, at any rate, it'd be pretty tough to condense the entire series into one film, even cutting out stuff that's kinda weak (like the New Orleans stuff) or extraneous (like the brilliant storyline where Jesse becomes a sheriff; the name escapes me at the moment).
I see at least three films ... you need one to introduce everybody (and possibly a second one to introduce the Grail). One more to set everything in motion, probably getting as far as the nuclear bomb. Since we're talking films, you'd probably have to lose a lot of the sheriff stuff and just jump to Cassidy with Tulip / Jesse wandering a bit, then speed right through to Alamo.
But that'd be pretty light on the little flourishes that make the great parts of Preacher great. Dammit. Maybe four or five, assuming the first even does well enough to warrant a second.
Bad a series as it is, "Transmetropolitan" could very easily be boiled down to one fairly decent film, at least as far as I've read. You'd be able to lose all the long-winded bullshit and outright thievery from Hunter S Thompson and just concentrate on those ideas that aren't quite as overtly stolen.