One of Garth Ennis’ most awesome series The Preacher is now a dead project at HBO, reports Mark Steven Johnson, the writer who brought Daredevil and Ghost Rider to the big screen, who was charged with the task of adapting it to a television series.

"We were budgeting and everything and it was getting really close to going," Johnson said before adding that the new head of HBO thought it to be "too dark and too violent and too controversial."

"It was a very faithful adaptation of the first few books, nearly word for word. They offered me the chance to redevelop it but I refused. I’ve learned my lesson on that front and I won’t do it again. So I’m afraid it’s dead at HBO."

He is currently in post-production on When in Rome, a comedy starring Kristen Bell, Danny DeVito and others.