'Preacher' TV series gets AMC pilot order

Preacher has taken another major step toward becoming a series. AMC has given a pilot order to the project based on the surreal, irreverent 1990s comic series created by writer Garth Ennis by artist Steve Dillon.

Sam Catlin (Breaking Bad) will serve as executive producer and showrunner, while Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (This is the End) will executive produce and direct the pilot, which is written by Catlin.

AMC’s official description: “Based on Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s twisted ‘90s comic book series, Preacher is about Jesse Custer, a conflicted Preacher in a small Texas town who merges with a creature that has escaped from heaven and develops the ability to make anyone do anything he says. Along with his ex-girlfriend, Tulip, and an Irish vampire named Cassidy, the three embark on a journey to literally find God.”

“Preacher has been our favorite comic since it first came out,” Rogen and Goldberg said in a statement today. “Garth Ennis is one of our idols and it’s an incredible honor to be working on this. We promise we won’t make too many dick jokes and ruin it.”

Said Ennis, who is serving with Dillon as co-executive producers on the project: “Steve Dillon and I are extremely pleased to know AMC has taken Preacher to pilot. We have had an ongoing voice in the efforts of the writers whom Sony TV and Original Film entrusted with this project, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Sam Catlin, and have been most gratified that they continue to include us, and that they have tackled the project with the type of unwavering commitment and courage needed to present the material as Steve and I intended. This has been a long time coming, but that it continues apace, and with the chance to be delivered episodically, gives Preacher an opportunity to be seen in its best possible medium, not previously possible. And many thanks indeed to [executive producers] Ken Levin and Neal Moritz for their never flagging commitment to Preacher, and for never giving up well past the point when I myself grew skeptical—we have principally gotten to where we are today because of Neal and Ken.”

The pilot will be made in summer 2015, and could hit the air on AMC sometime in 2016.