Holy crap, guys. Somebody out there in TV land has a pulse and they’re using it to bring one of the most promising projects out there a step closer to reality. AMC is moving forward with their upcoming adaptation of the beloved comic series Preacher by officially ordering its pilot. We’re not setting our DVRs just yet, but we’re also not taking any good news for granted here.
Preacher is coming to fans from Seth Rogen and his writer/director partner Evan Goldberg and their Point Grey production company, along with Original Film. The duo have already cranked out the screenplay for the pilot and will share directing duties on it. They’ve previously directed This is the End and the upcoming assassination comedy The Interview, so it’s obvious that Preacher is a wholly different branch of fiction for them to be working on, but they’ll have former Breaking Bad writer/producer Sam Catlin to help them out as showrunner.
Created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon in 1995, the Vertigo series Preacher followed small town Texas preacher Jesse Custer, who was possessed by a supernatural being named Genesis that caused him to destroy his own church and massacre his congregation. He is on a trek across the nation to seek out God, who has been hiding out from heaven ever since Genesis came into existence. He’ll take on a slew of dangerous supernatural foes with the help of his old girlfriend Tulip O’Hare and the liquor-loving Irish vampire Cassidy. Considering the pedigree AMC has for original programming, Preacher could very well be one of the most prestigious horror-tinged series out there. Assuming it makes it to series of course.
Here’s how Rogen reacted to the news in a press release, according to Variety.
Preacher has been our favorite comic since it first came out. Garth Ennis is one of our idols and it’s an incredible honor to be working on this. We promise we won’t make too many dick jokes and ruin it.”
I’m pretty sure their version of Cassidy is going to tell at least ONE dick joke.
Now we get to anticipate the casting announcements, which is both extremely exciting and nausea-inducing all at the same time. Take a look at the three main characters below and try to picture who you think would work best for each role. I can’t get the idea of Married With Children’s David Faustino out of my head for Cassidy, and there’s something so wrong about that.
Will Preacher raise more eyebrows than NBC’s poorly-rated comic adaptation Constantine has? (I’m still kind of surprised that show exists.) Here’s hoping the pilot is so good that AMC orders however many seasons it takes to tell the whole story.
