Given how controversial, and potentially fan-dividing, any screen version of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s brutal, seminal graphic novel Preacher is likely to be, we’re surprised it has won an official thumbs up at all. But now, after years of talk about different big screen versions, US network AMC has announced that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s TV take is in full development.
The latest word on this one arrived in November, with reports that the channel was considering a pilot based on the sprawling story of Jesse Custer, a handsome young Texas reverend with a dark past and a deep love of John Wayne films who becomes bonded with a creature known as Genesis, the offspring of an angel and demon. The blend at times makes him as powerful as God Himself, but also gives him real problems.
Filmmakers such as Kevin Smith, Sam Mendes, Rachel Talaly and DJ Caruso have all had a crack, but now it seems the This Is The End team have finally managed to make it work; at least, enough to warrant cracking open company coffers.
“This is amazing!" Rogen and Goldberg said in a statement. "We've tried for seven years to work on Preacher and we're so psyched AMC is finally letting us. It is our favorite comic of all time, and we're going to do everything we can to do it right. Humperdoo!”
They won’t be alone in the effort: AMC has hired Breaking Bad veteran writer-producer Sam Catlin to shoulder the day-to-day work on running the show itself, which is another positive sign in our book. Whether they can bring the religious elements, rude humour and occasional ultra violence to US TV (even cable TV) without mobs gathering their pitchforks and reaching for the torch lighter fuel is another matter, but it’s certainly a step closer now.