Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s small-screen take on Garth Ennis’ controversial comic series, Preacher, will debut at this year’s South by Southwest film festival along with several other projects that have been added to the lineup. Along with this announcement, AMC has released a new image from the show, featuring Dominic Cooper as the Reverend Jesse Custer relaxing in church with a cigarette. If the show is anything like the comic, he’ll be doing a lot of that.
On that note, Rogen spoke at the Television Critics Association’s press tour in Pasadena, California, on Friday after a screening of the pilot episode, and admitted that the series will deviate quite a bit from the source material.
I don’t know that you could translate it directly [from the comic]. Everybody involved felt we should not — including [comic creator Garth Ennis]. We’re fans of the comic. We love the comic. We’re going to make a show we like, so we hope that that translates to people that love the comic as well. But our first and foremost goal is to make a great, entertaining, fun television show that if you never heard of the comic book, you love. We want the show to be fun for regular people without sick sensibilities.
Fans shouldn’t worry too much though, as by all accounts Rogen and co. have pulled it off.
Preacher stars Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer, Joseph Gilgun as Cassidy, Ian Colletti as Eugene “Arseface” Root, W. Earl Brown as Arseface’s father, Elizabeth Perkins as Vyla Quinncannon, Ruth Negga as Tulip, and Jamie Anne Allman and Derek Wilson as Betsy and Donny Schenck.