Writer John August says it will take a while to get “Preacher” made. ©DC Comics

By ANGELA DAWSON
Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—John August, who has been tapped to write the movie version of the DC/Vertigo Comics series “Preacher” created by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon, describes the project as “gestating.”

“I don’t know if the birth is going to be anytime soon,” August said during a press junket for “Frankenweenie.” August wrote the screenplay for that movie, adapting director Tim Burton’s 1984 live-action film of the same name into a feature-length stop-motion animated adventure.

“That’s the frustration about screenwriting,” August noted. “You can spend a lot of time on a project and sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t happen. The luxury of working on ‘Frankenweenie’ is that I came on and they said, ‘We’re going to make this movie. You wrote the script and I shoot the script,’ and it’s done. That’s remarkable.”

He said that other projects, like “Preacher,” get “frozen in 12-point Courier.”

“You look for filmmakers who will see it and make it,” he said, adding that “my favorite genre of movies are movies that get made.”

“Preacher,” which tells the story of a smalltown Texas clergyman who becomes possessed by a supernatural power and goes on a quest to find God, was published by DC/Vertigo from 1995-2000. The 66 issues and several spinoffs that make up the series are available in hardback and trade paperback collectons. Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”) is slated to direct the character’s big-screen debut.