AMC’s Preacher Pilot Gets Official

This is really happening, you guys!

There are not many beloved comic books with as many false start media adaptations as Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Preacher.  The hit Vertigo series has been rumored for the big screen and small screen so many times at this point, it gets hard to keep track.

That’s kind of a good thing, because many of the adaptations we’ve heard along the way haven’t sounded too promising.  There was an abandoned movie script which dulled the edges off Jesse Custer, his back story and his friends Tulip and Cassidy.  And then there was Mark Steven Johnson’s proposed one issue-for-one episode TV show pitch, which sounded okay… until you realize he’s the guy who made Ghost Rider.

But now, here we are, with the current plans for Preacher actually becoming a reality.  The show’s pilot has officially been ordered by AMC, and it will begin production in mid-2015 (it’s currently being written and developed by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Breaking Bad‘s Sam Catlin).

While it’s sort of a bummer to hear Rogen and Goldberg recycle the same dick joke line they used before in the official press release, I’m actually confident these two can make Preacher work as a TV series.  The raunchiness of Ennis’ comedy often helps to hide the emotional core of his characters and story, and Rogen and Goldberg are kind of masters at this technique.  There’s a lot of truly touching notions about friendship and love hidden stealthily underneath the dick and fart jokes that make Superbad or This Is The End so very entertaining.

So Preacher is finally happening, and it’s going down with a creative team that, while I never would have even considered them, actually feels like a great fit for the material.  I’m excited… How about you?

Source: Comic Book