Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, whose directorial debut “This is the End” was a $100-million box office hit last summer, are looking to dominate the small screen with a trio of pilots in development.
While at South by Southwest for the premiere of their comedy “Neighbors,” Rogen and Goldberg sat down with TheWrap’s Lucas Shaw to talk about “Preacher,” an adaptation of Garth Ennis’ graphic novel, with AMC — as well as an animated pilot for FX and an undisclosed pilot with HBO through their production company Point Grey Pictures.
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The duo has been longing to do “Preacher” for seven years, and are writing the pilot with the help of show-runner Sam Catlin, who worked on AMC’s “Breaking Bad.”
“It’s a very strange and disgusting and subversive and hilarious and violent story,” said Rogen, “it’s very hard to summarize.”
“We should probably work on that,” added Goldberg.
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The FX pilot is based on Graham Roumieu’s novel “Bigfoot” and centers on a Sasquatch who tries to make his way in the modern world. There are currently no details on their pilot with HBO.
“Neighbors,” which Goldberg produced and stars Rogen, Zac Efron and Rose Byrne, “sounded like a really simple, clear, funny idea,” said Rogen, “normally our ideas are actors playing themselves in the apocalypse, which on paper, maybe isn’t as commercially appealing as a couple with a baby and a frat face-off.”
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They were impressed with co-star Efron and his first major experience with improvising. “He didn’t have training for that type of acting and he just nailed it,” Goldberg explained.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” said Rogen, “but he really took the character seriously … was hard on himself … but he was also very loose and willing to improvise.”
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“Neighbors” hits theaters on May 9.