For years people had attempted to adapt “Preacher for film or television, but the surreal and supernatural qualities of the story spun in the pages of the comic book left more than a handful of projects dead on arrival in the studio headquarters of Hollywood.
Earlier this year, though, “Preacher” made it television through the efforts of Seth Rogen and his creative partner Evan Goldberg, and on Friday, the AMC series earned the final spot in Hall H, the biggest room in the San Diego convention center and the most prestigious space on the Comic-Con schedule.
Rogen drew huge cheers when he walked on stage, and even more when he started to speak.
“I assume you’re taking pictures of me and there’s not a Squirtle on the stage right now,” he said in reference to the Pokemon Go mania that’s gripped geeks and nerds and the typical Comic-Con attendee over the last two weeks.
What happened next, though, was possibly unprecedented in Comic-Con history.
Joined by the three leads of the series – Dominic Cooper, who plays Jesse Cutler, the preacher at the heart of the series, Ruth Negga, who plays Tulip, his longtime love, and Joseph Gilgun, who plays Cassidy, a sardonic Irish vampire – as well as other cast members and fill-in players, Hall H turned into a massive table read of the penultimate episode of the first season of “Preacher.”
That’s right, fans in the hall heard – and saw bits and pieces – of the “Preacher” episode that airs first the first time Sunday night. Rogen read the expository material that described the visual happenings on stage, but the rest of the panelists, which included Ian Colletti who plays Eugene, Graham McTavish, who plays the Cowboy, and Kevin Smith, just because, hey, it’s Kevin Smith, he loves all things geek — read their lines as the story unfolded.
We won’t spoil things too much but if you’re a fan who’s been watching there’s a huge twist in act three of the episode that produced screams, even shrieks, from fans in the audience, and the final act is a visual ballet of blood and gore that tops anything the series has done in that vein, which is plenty, so far this season.
Cassidy is “super messed up,” to quote Rogen’s description at one point. During one scene with the characters LeBlanc and Fiore there’s a visual easter egg for sharp-eyed viewers that connects this AMC series with the channel’s earlier “Breaking Bad.”
Rogen proved a hilarious narrator in his play-by- play of the script, right down to his trademark heh-heh-heh laughs.
“Contrary to this performance, it’s the angriest Cassidy has ever been,” he said after one of Gilgun’s line reads arrived with more subtlety than Cassidy usually delivers.
“You told me I could do my own thing!” Gilgun replied in mock ire.
When the live read-through of the script ended Smith took to the podium to moderate a discussion with the cast.
“I’ve been making movies for years,” he said at the end of the final scene of the episode that was shown on the giant screens in the hall. “I’ve never made anything as gripping as that. You guys are doing the (bleepin’) Lord’s work here.”
Smith was involved in one earlier attempt to adapt the comic book, as was director Sam Mendes a bit later.
“But it took kids from Canada, of all places, who fell in love with this material,” he said of Rogen and Goldberg. “Two kids, like practically everybody in this audience, who read a comic book and fell in love with it.
“These cats kept up the dream. And they got to a power at some point where they even pissed off North Korea” – a reference to the Rogen-James Franco-starring movie “The Interview” – “and they did the impossible and brought ‘Preacher’ to life.”
For the season finale on July 31, Smith noted that AMC will hold a post-episode special “Talking Preacher,” a fact that seemed to delight Rogen: “We got one of those ‘Talking’ shows!” he said after Smith mentioned that “Preacher” would join “The Walking Dead” and a few other AMC programs that do recaps after each episode.
He and Goldberg talked about how they worked with “Preacher” comic book creator Garth Ennis to find ways to stay true to the books but also make the show work on television.
“One of the early revelations from Garth was that it just wouldn’t time out,” Rogen said. “It wouldn’t give us enough material that we needed for the 15 seasons we want to do.”
Ennis jumped in next: “I had realized fairly early on that they were gonna have to mess with it and I was OK with it.
“The comic has this breathless pace to it that would be impossible to put on screen, and you would burn yourself of material in what, a season and a half?” he said.
“But what a season and a half!” Rogen said.
