Scott Stewart blends western and Asian comic styles in his adaptation of the post-apocalyptic graphic novel Priest. After centuries of war, battle-hardened priests have nearly wiped out an entire race of vampires. But when the priests return home to walled cities run by the church, they are greeted as outcasts. They must live in isolation, working at menial jobs and are easily identified by their distinctive tattoos. Title character Priest (Paul Bettany) gets word that his 18-year-old niece, Lucy (Lily Collins), who lives in the wastelands, a lawless place outside the city walls, has been abducted by vampires. He asks the church for permission to rescue her before she becomes a vampire. Monsignor Orelas (Christopher Plummer), a member of the high clergy, denies his request. His only option is to disobey and save Lucy before it's too late. He sets off with her boyfriend Hicks (Cam Gigandet), a trigger-happy sheriff and the Priestess (Maggie Q). But they soon discover something that threatens to tip the balance of power in favour of the vampires. Original comic creator Min-Woo Hyung was heavily involved in the film adaptation. His works tend to be cinematic in nature, but producers were still tense when it came to presenting their ideas to the South Korean artist. 'Min-Woo is a really serious and intense guy,' says Stu Levy, chief executive of TokyoPop, the English publisher of Priest, and executive producer of the film. 'He looked at all the concept art and understood immediately.' The story departs from the source comic quite considerably. It uses the original as a jumping off point and builds on it. 'I was nervous about what his [Hyung] expectations would be,' says Stewart. 'For example, this story takes place in the future, whereas his story takes place in all these other time periods in the past.' The team of animators worked tirelessly to transform Hyung's artistic style, which is known for its angular lines and sketchy finish, into something more suitable for film. But they were at great pains to continually reference his original art. Hyung worked extensively with scriptwriter Cory Goodman to bring the story to the big screen. 'He was able to take a lot of what Min-Woo set up in the graphic novel and build on that to create a completely original idea,' says Levy. 'The film uses the best of both of these extremely talented storytellers - Min-Woo's incredible art style and palette, and Cory's characters and plot. It's a case of one plus one equalling three.' Contains violence and frightening scenes. Priest opens on Thursday
