Adam McKay In Talks To Direct Garth Ennis' The Boys

Since late October 2008 there has been talk of making a film version of Garth Ennis' Preacher. At some point or another, names such as Sam Mendes, John August, John Cusack and, most recently, Joe Carnahan have been mentioned in conjunction with the project but it appears to have lost all forward momentum. Perhaps Ennis will have better luck with The Boys.

Collider reports that director Adam McKay, best known for his work with Will Ferrell, is in talks to direct the comic adaptation. A long time comic book fan, McKay has been in search of the right project for years now and this could very well be it. Written by Ennis and illustrated by Transmetropolitan artist Darick Robertson, the comic is about a world where a select few people in the population have been given the gift of superpowers. In order to keep order and a watchful high, a superpowered CIA team called "The Boys" is established. Much like Preacher, the content in the book his highly violent and irreverent and certainly outside of what we've seen from McKay in the past.

In the picture above, you see that guy at the bottom with the red goatee? Does he look familiar at all? Well, he should as the character, named Wee Hughie Campbell, is based on none other than Shaun of the Dead star Simon Pegg. A fan of the series, having written the forward for the comic's first bound volume, that casting will likely be a slam dunk, so that, at the very least, is something that there should be debate over. Now all they have to do is cast the other six and they'll be in business.

Eric Eisenberg
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Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.