Seth Rogen is understandably nervous about screwing up another beloved franchise.
One of Hollywood’s most bankable big screen stars puts on the executive producer hat for AMC’s live action adaptation of the graphic novel series “Preacher.”
“I don’t want to ruin my favorite comic,” he tells Fox411.
Rogen and longtime collaborator Evan Goldberg — the creative team behind “SuperBad”, “Pineapple Express” and “This Is The End” have good reason to be concerned.
Their 2011 movie version of “The Green Lantern” was a monumental flop.
The New York Post called it “overblown, interminable and unfunny” and Rogen himself lamented in a podcast interview: "We shouldn't make expensive movies where we can't make a million dick jokes.”
“Preacher” — created in 1995 by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon — follows small town Texas preacher Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) who becomes accidentally possessed by a supernatural spirit and embarks on a journey with his ex-girlfriend to find God.
“We’re going to make a show that we like, so we hope that translates to people that love the comics, as well,” Rogen told TV critics at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Los Angeles last week.
“But first and foremost, our goal is to make a great television show.”
Rogen admits it is a challenge to translate comic directly to television.
“There’s tons of stuff from the comic that we hope to include,” he says.
“For people who know the comics, there are all sorts of Easter eggs… that don’t obviously confuse people that are just coming to the show for the first time.”
Here’s more of what Rogen had to share…
FOX411: The special effects in “The Preacher” were both creepy and funny…
Rogen: We never want the show to be just one thing. The comic is like that. That's really where we were taking our cues in that way. The comic is never just a horror thing or a funny thing or an action thing or a romance. It always kind of seamlessly yet completely unpredictably bounces between those things.
FOX411: Any chance you might act in “Preacher?”
Rogen: No, not yet.
FOX411: Was everybody on your staff familiar with the comic?
Rogen: A lot of the people who work for the show had never read the comic up until the moment they worked on the show. We've asked and everyone has now read it just because we're always referencing, "What about this character? What about this thing?"
FOX411: How did you come to pick Dominic as your Jesse?
Rogen: Jesse is a very hard, interesting character (with) a lot happening under the surface. He's someone who goes from being very quiet to very opinionated as the comic goes on, and these are all the shades. We need someone who's funny at times, and again, just like the show, who can affect every tone.
I'd watched the James Bond [BBC America mini-series “Fleming”]. I'd watched “The Devil's Double,” and he's just an actor that is always someone that there was never an opportunity for us to put him in anything else really. There was never a role that was right for him in any of our other stuff, but he's someone that I always was like, "Dominic Cooper's a great actor. Maybe we should try to work with him at some point." Then when this came up, it was like, it could be him. He could be the perfect guy for it. It just worked out.
FOX411: What comic books are your reading right now?
Rogen: I am reading “Saga” right now. It is really, really good.
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