'Preacher' Creators on Adapting the Comic for Television
It's always a fine balancing act when adapting famous works to film or television, and it seems comic book properties are a particularly precarious venture for any creator. Yet, no one can expect AMC's upcoming adaptation Preacher to stick to its source material like a bible.
For one, it's based off a nineties comic book series that's vulgarity is matched only by its incredibly dark humour. And yet, it's considered a cult classic (and for good reason). Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have been committed to the project for some time now, which has seen difficult times in many attempts to see it come to life on the screen.
Speaking with EW recently, the executive producing pair pitched Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's comic to AMC as a 100% faithful adaptation. “We actually pitched, ‘It’s going to be like Sin City, frame-for-frame, almost. We’re going to be really true to the comic,” said Goldberg.
During the TCA panel for the series, the duo had this to say: “We talked with Garth, and Garth very much encouraged us to make a lot of small changes and to make it a good show first and foremost. Our big thing is we want fans who love the comic to get everything they want but also make some new twists and turns.”
“We love the comic, and we are going to make a show we like," Rogen said. "So we hope that that translates to people who love the comic as well. But, again, our first and foremost goal is to make a great, entertaining, fun television show that, if you’ve never heard of the comic book, you love. We talked a lot about that.”
Showrunner Sam Catlin explained one major deviation from the comic. “Narratively, it starts at 110 miles an hour. I don’t know how you tell that story in the narrative television form. So, came up with the idea that we would see Jesse as a preacher — because he’s only very briefly a preacher in the comic, and then he’s just kind of a bad-ass guy in a preacher collar.
"We thought there would be an opportunity to see someone try to do their job, be sort of the spiritual sheriff for the town. There’s so many big set pieces and crazy, over-the-wall violence, comedy, stuff like that. We wanted to ground it in something familiar, so that it didn’t feel like a bad acid trip.”
The series is in fact the polar opposite to their original pitch. Rogen said that an AMC excutive confronted them early on while shooting the pilot and said, “Don’t think it got past us that you pitched us one thing and now we are here filming something which is 100 percent different than the thing you pitched us.”
But trust goes a long way. “‘Oh, good. We thought they just didn’t notice,’" Rogen quoted himself, before adding that "they’ve been outrageously supportive, honestly.”
Preacher premieres on Sunday, May 22.
Source: Collider
