AMC is going to try to strike comic book gold again by finally bringing the Garth Ennis/ Steve Dillon classic “Preacher” to television. And the unlikely duo that will be manning the creative wheels behind the show’s pilot? Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
The news comes via Devon Faraci at Badass Digest and it is welcome news for a series that has found itself in development Hell since the late 90s.
“Preacher” has been out in the world of almost getting adapted for a while; it all started back in 1998 when Garth Ennis wrote a draft of a script and Kevin Smith tried to get Harvey Weinstein to make it. Along the way we’ve seen people like Rachel Talaly, DJ Caruso and Sam Mendes attached to direct.
It sounds like an April Fools joke of sorts, but here we are smack dab in November with not a fool in sight (except for me, I guess). Judging from these tweets Rogen posted, we might be closer than ever to an honest to God “Preacher” adaptation.
Alan Sepinwall at HitFix provides some insight on the pair tackling the iconic series:
There are only a handful of creative types in the business I would think would even have a prayer of taking “Preacher” from the page to the screen, and I would not have necessarily put Rogen and Goldberg on that list. They’re comic book fans, but they struggled to adapt “The Green Hornet” to modern times…
That said, my expectations would be much lower if I hadn’t seen and liked “This Is The End,” which is itself a blend of tones and styles that should not work together, shifting from autobiographical self-satire to genuine metaphysical dread.
“Preacher” was a genre blending series that helped put DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint on the map in the 90s alongside “Hellblazer” and “Sandman.” Trying to explain the storyline seems like a chore that I couldn’t do justice. The saga of Jesse Custer, Tulip and Cassidy is one I’ve enjoyed for quite a while now and always viewed as the perfect type of vehicle for TV, especially in the current climate. It’s blasphemous, grungy and violent to the point of pure bliss.
If Rogen and Goldberg can pull it off, I would hope to see it move past the pilot stage and join the stable of highly touted series on AMC. It could easily play hand and hand with “The Walking Dead” and could help shore up their lineup for years to come. All we need now is an adaptation of Warren Ellis’ “Transmetropolitan” and I will die a lonely but happy man. I have to ask though, what does this mean for “Low Winter Sun?”