It’s been a long road for Garth Ennis’ Preacher on its way to television. There were rumors of movies and HBO series in the past, but it wasn’t until a year ago that we got our first real taste of an actual Preacher series with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s involvement.
Since that point, there have been many attempts at a pilot and at least seven scripts bit the dust. It probably seemed bleak once again, but it would seem that the light has finally shined through: Preacher is getting a pilot. From Variety:
Rogen and Goldberg wrote the adaptation for Neal Moritz’s Original Film. That trio is exec producing through their Point Grey banner, along with showrunner Sam Catlin.
The Sony Pictures Television and AMC Studios co-production was a hot property when it was shopped to cable buyers earlier this year. There had been talk of a straight-to-series order but at present it is a pilot.
“’Preacher’ has been our favorite comic since it first came out,” said Rogen and Goldberg, who are also attached to direct. “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.”
Variety adds that the pilot will most likely go into production over summer 2015 for considerations in 2016. From there, it’s up to the brass at AMC to either give it the greenlight or send it back to development hell for another go round. If this statement from AMC is any indication, things look promising. From Deadline:
“Every once in a while you find a project where all the elements line up beautifully. With Preacher, it starts with a bold, compelling, and thought-provoking comic book series from Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon and a whole lot of fans who already know Jesse Custer, Cassidy, and Tulip,” said Joel Stillerman, AMC’s EVP of original programming. “Add to that the passionate and talented Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Sam Catlin, an incredible producing team in Neal Moritz, the Original Film team and our good friends at Sony Pictures Television, and we have everything we need to be VERY excited to move forward on Preacher.”
This is the sixth pilot that the network has ordered in the past year, passing on three. You can’t blame them for going back to the comic book well considering the massive success of The Walking Dead. Hard to think that Preacher wouldn’t at least garner some success if produced. It certainly has a kick ass story full of characters to love. Here’s hoping for good things.
