After years wandering the desert of development in various forms, the long-gestating adaptation of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s classic Preacher graphic novel series is finally creeping closer to reality. And while we’re still waiting to find out who will shoulder the mantle of leading man Jesse Custer, producers Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Sam Catlin have locked in Ruth Negga to play Tulip.
Negga, who has been in films such as World War Z, Breakfast On Pluto and 12 Years A Slave, might be** **most recognisable to comic-book fans as Raina on Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. She’s set for Preacher as Custer’s former flame and one true love, who joins him and Irish vampire Cassidy on a mission to track down God.
Custer, you see, is a handsome young Texas reverend with a dark past and a deep love of John Wayne films who becomes bonded with a creature known as Genesis, the offspring of an angel and demon. The blend at times makes him as powerful as God Himself, but also gives him real problems. So he, Tulip and Cassidy head to find out why the almighty has forsaken his kingdom.
Rogen and Goldberg have been attached for a while, developing the concept as a pilot they will direct for a potential show on US cable network AMC, with Catlin recruited to write the first script and run the show if it’s commissioned beyond this initial outing. Now all we have to do is await the predictable complaints that Negga doesn’t look like the Tulip of the comics...
The actress, who was also recently seen in Jimi: All Is By My Side, will next appear on the big screen in Duncan Jones’s Warcraft adaptation, which will hit our cinemas on March 11 next year.