From these (old) reports at Comics2Film.com (search for Preacher), it looks like Kevin Smith is no longer attached to the film.
And I always confuse James Marsden (Cyclops) with James Marsters (Spike).
Reported By Comics2Film - Jun 11, 2002:
Comics2Film heard from producer Rupert Harvey about recent casting buzz on the Preacher movie.
Harvey confirmed that, while he hasn't signed yet, James Marsden will very likely star in the title role. Marsden is well-known to C2F readers for playing Scott Summers/Cyclops in X-Men.
Marsden will be busy with X-Men 2 starting this month, which means Preacher will have to wait. Harvey expects the movie will go into production later this year.
Reported By Entertainment Weekly - May 20, 2002:
Cyclops to play a certain supernatural sermon-giver? It sounds like it, as X-Man James Marsden told Entertainment Weekly he wants to star as the title character in the film Preacher. Most of you know that Preacher was originally a comic published by D.C. Comics' Vertigo imprint, and ran for 5 years.
EW quoted Marsden describing the project as "...about a guy [who's] struck by lightning while he's preaching a sermon and inherits the power of the word of God. It's very dark."
Indeed, as in the comic book, the Jesse Custer (Preacher) was the only one in the church to survive the origin of his divine powers. Custer befriends a girl (Tulip), an Irish drunk that turns out to be a vampire, and one of the forces after them is the Saint of Killers, heaven's perfect killer.
The production was originally set to lens last November, has been gaining momentum since the director was named in Rachel Talalay (who directed another indie comic with mixed results in Tank Girl), and a budget of $20 million was assigned.
Trivia note: Back when Kevin Smith was attached to Preacher as executive producer, he tried to enlist his buddy Ben Affleck (and current comic superhero Daredevil) as the title character. However, Affleck turned the offer down flat, saying that he never did similar roles back to back. He was referring to his most recent film (at that time), Dogma - in which he played a fallen angel.
