Preacher (comics)

Adaptation attempts

Garth Ennis, feeling Preacher would translate perfectly as a film, sold the film rights to Electric Entertainment. Rachel Talalay was hired to direct, with Ennis writing the script. Rupert Harvey and Tom Astor were set as producers. By May 1998, Ennis completed three drafts of the script, based largely on the Gone to Texas story arc.[4] The filmmakers found it difficult financing Preacher because investors found the idea religiously controversial. Ennis approached Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier to help finance the film under their View Askew Productions banner. Ennis, Smith and Mosier pitched Preacher to Bob Weinstein at Miramax Films.

Weinstein was confused by the characterization of Jesse Custer. Miramax also did not want to share the box office gross with Electric Entertainment, ultimately dropping the pitch. By May 2000, Smith and Mosier were still attached to produce with Talalay directing, but Smith did not know the status of Preacher, feeling it would languish in development hell.[5] By then, Storm Entertainment, a UK-based production company known for their work on independent films, joined the production with Electric Entertainment.[4] In September 2001, the two companies announced Preacher had been greenlighted to commence pre-production, with filming to begin in November and Talalay still directing Ennis' script.[6] The production and start dates were pushed back because of financial issues[7] of the $25 million projected budget.

James Marsden was cast in the lead role as Jesse Custer sometime in 2002. He explained, "It was something I never knew anything about, but once I got my hands on the comic books, I was blown away by it."[7] In a March 2004 interview, Marsden said the filmmakers were hoping for filming to start the following August.[8] With the full-length film adaptation eventually abandoned with budgetary concerns,[7] HBO announced in November 2006 that they commissioned Mark Steven Johnson and Howard Deutch to produce a television pilot. Johnson was to write with Deutch directing.[9] Impressed with Johnson's pilot script, HBO had him write the series bible for the first season.[10] Johnson first planned "to turn each comic book issue into a single episode" on a shot-for-shot basis. "I gave [HBO] the comics, and I said, 'Every issue is an hour'. Ennis said 'You don't have to be so beholden to the comic'. And I'm like, 'No, no, no. It's got to be like the comic'."[11]

Johnson also wanted to make sure that one-shots were included as well.[12] Johnson changed his position, citing new storylines conceived by Ennis. "Well, there would be nothing new to add if we did that, so Garth [Ennis] and I have been creating new stories for the series," he said. "I love the book so much and I was telling Garth that he has to make the stories we are coming up with as comics because I want to see them."[10] By August 2008, new studio executives at HBO decided to abandon the idea, finding it too stylistically dark and religiously controversial.[13] Columbia Pictures then purchased the film rights in October 2008 with Sam Mendes planned to direct. Neal H. Moritz and Jason Netter would have produced the film. The previous scripts written by Ennis would not have been used.[14]

AMC television series

On November 16, 2013, it was announced that AMC would be shooting a pilot for Preacher.[15] On November 18, 2013, Bleeding Cool confirmed that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg had developed the series pilot with Sam Catlin, and that it would be distributed by Sony Pictures Television.[16][17] On February 7, 2014, it was made public that AMC was officially developing the series to television based on the pilot written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Rogen had no plans to co-star in the series. On May 9, 2014, AMC announced that Preacher was picked up to series.[18] Preacher was slated to premiere mid to late 2015, as announced by Seth Rogen, with the script for the series complete and the pilot ordered by the studio.[19][20][21] Comic creators Steve Dillon and Garth Ennis were to work on this project as co-executive producer.[22][23] On April 17, 2015, Seth Rogen tweeted that Dominic Cooper was cast in the role of Jesse Custer, Joseph Gilgun as Cassidy, Ruth Negga as Tulip O'Hare, Ian Colletti as Arseface, and W. Earl Brown as Sheriff Hugo Root. On September 9, 2015, Seth Rogen announced via Twitter that the series ordered to a ten-episode first season and was due to premiere in mid-2016.[24] The series premiered on AMC on Sunday, May 22, 2016, and concluded July 31. A second season, with thirteen episodes, aired from June 25 to September 11, 2017. From June 24 to August 26, 2018, a ten-episode third season aired. In November 2018, the series was renewed for a fourth and final ten-episode season, with production relocating to Australia, and the season airing from August 4 to September 29, 2019.

GraphicAudio audiobook series

In May 2020, all 98 issues of Garth Ennis' The Boys comic book series and the 8-issue epilogue series Dear Becky were adapted into seven full cast audiobooks produced by GraphicAudio, with all volumes numbering a combined 31 hours in length.[25] In the second audiobook, the Preacher epilogue from "We Gotta Go Now" is adapted, with Michael John Casey voicing Proinsias Cassidy.[26]