It’s been a few months since we last checked in on AMC’s adaptation of Garth Ennis’ Preacher books…
The series premiere was screened last Monday at SXSW and was met with positive reactions from the crowd. Many are drawing parallels to last month’s mega hit Deadpool, due mostly to the violent nature of the storytelling, combined with strong comedic writing. In this case, those writers (and producers) are Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. The duo, responsible for getting this project off the ground, have collaborated previously on several projects, including Superbad, Knocked Up, and the funniest movie of 2013 – This is the End.
For those unfamiliar with the comics, here is a brief discription of the show;
“Preacher” is a supernatural, twisted and darkly comedic drama that follows a West Texas preacher named Jesse Custer, who is inhabited by a mysterious entity that causes him to develop a highly unusual power. Jesse, his badass ex-girlfriend Tulip and an Irish vagabond named Cassidy come together and when they do, they are thrust into a crazy world populated by a cast of characters from Heaven, Hell and everywhere in between.
We got the first full trailer last fall, but until recently hadn’t heard much more. Now with the buzz from SXSW however, news is starting to come out more rapidly. For instance, the show’s quick approaching May 22 release, perhaps a bit sooner than most expected. Also, unlike Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and several other AMC shows, Preacher‘s first season will run for ten episodes rather than the standard six. That should be great news for fans if this turns out to be even half as good as early reviews have indicated. AMC has also just released a quick behind the scenes look with Seth Rogen on their YouTube page;
One bit of spoiler-ish news involves a gag in the first episode that may one day put Seth Rogen in a position to apologize to Tom Cruise, and that in and of itself is kind of funny.
From Entertainment Weekly;
Asked if anybody at AMC objected to the gag, Goldberg replied, “It’s amazing, no one said anything! We kept waiting for somebody to say no and now it’s too late.”
“I will run into [Cruise] one day, though. That will happen,” Rogen predicted. “And I’ll have to explain that. I’ll have to come up with a way in my head to make it seem complimentary but I haven’t done it yet.”
Pictured below we see our principle characters; Jesse Custer played by Marvel’s Howard Stark himself, Dominic Cooper. Cassidy is portrayed by MisFits star Joseph Gilgun, which seems like excellent casting. And you might recognize Ruth Negga from her run as Raina on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., she’ll be playing Tulip here.
Joining our principle cast we’ll see genre favorites such as Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen), Lucy Griffiths (True Blood), Anatol Yusef (Boardwalk Empire), and W. Earl Brown from Deadwood.
The premiere will air Sunday, May 22 at 10pm, following the mid-season finale of Fear the Walking Dead.
Images: Columbia Pictures, AMC
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