Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg reaped praise on Saturday as they premiered AMC’s newest show, “Preacher,” at the Regal L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles. The dark drama, based on the popular comic book of the same name, tells the story of a small town Texas preacher who becomes possessed by an unnatural spiritual force named Genesis.
Showrunner Sam Catlin noted the difficulties of bringing “Preacher” to television. Shot in New Mexico, he said that they tried diligently to not make the series feel like “a watered-down version” of the comics.
“There’s so much TV out there that’s groundbreaking, but I’ve never seen anything like this show before,” said Catlin. “It’s such a huge world; it feels like it’s made for cable television.”
Executive producers Rogen and Goldberg say that they have been passionate fans of the “Preacher” comic book for many years. The former recalled that it took about 10 years to finally make the show a reality.
“Getting our hands on the property and becoming the people they would entrust it with was the challenge,” Rogen told Variety. “We never stopped talking about how much we wanted to make this.”
Rogen said that once the rights were obtained, things started moving rather quickly. He noted that he was particularly interested in having “Preacher” join AMC because it was home to another comic book adaptation: “The Walking Dead.”
“What they did with ‘TWD’ was very exciting to us; the fact that they took a fringe comic book with very passionate hardcore fans and then turned it into one of the biggest shows on television,” Rogen continued. “They seemed like incredible partners to work with and Sam [Catlin] had a great relationship with them from ‘Breaking Bad.’”
Rogen added, “Television is very fast in comparison with movies. I was surprised by how much we were able to cram in, and how that pace really inspires everyone to bring a different level of game.”
Goldberg added that he and Rogen were given creative freedom to explore the visual elements of “Preacher.”
“On comedies, you go where the comedy train and the laughs go,” he revealed. “Directorially, this was more of what we’ve had inside and wanted to do, but we were slaves to the laughter. Now, we can make this funny when we want.”
“Preacher” premieres May 22 on AMC.
[Pictured: Seth Rogen and wife Lauren Miller]
