AMC has ordered an adaptation of the comic book series “Preacher,” published by DC Comics imprint Vertigo. Executive producer Seth Rogen broke the news on Twitter Wednesday:
Rogen is teaming up with Evan Goldberg again — the pair co-directed “This Is The End” — to direct the first season’s nine, hour-long episodes. (Both have fond memories of reading the comics in the ’90s.) Sam Catlin of “Breaking Bad” will serve as showrunner for the series, based on the original comic book by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.
“Preacher” follows the story of the Reverend Jesse Custer — played by this guy, Dominic Cooper:
Custer is a Texan preacher who loses his faith and struggles to literally find God as he also wrestles with a newfound superpower: the ability to make others do as he says (aka “the word”). Custer is joined on his roadtripping adventures by a drunk Irish vampire called Cassidy, played by Joe Gilgun, and a gun-loving ex-girlfriend named Tulip O’Hare, played by Ruth Negga:
“It’s a mythic western, a road trip, a love story and a harrowing tale of abuse,” The Guardian wrote. Entertainment Weekly said it “features more blood and blasphemy than any mainstream comic in memory.” Catlin added in a press release that he couldn’t “wait to spend some quality time with vampires, psychopaths, rednecks and God.”
According to a comics blogger, screenwriter Mark Steven Johnson said that HBO, which had discussed picking up the series, ultimately dismissed it for being “too dark and too violent and too controversial.”
The show premieres on AMC in 2016.
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