Seth Rogen

Eating a hot dog will never be the same.

Writing a comedy sequel that’s as good as, if not better than, the first movie is a rare achievement. But if there’s anyone who can do it, it’s Nick Stoller.

AMC’s Preacher has been in development long enough that executive producer Seth Rogen once sought to audition for Arseface in a different production, and everything appears to have come full circle. Not only did Rogen make his own Preacher, the Neighbors 2 star made his own Preacher of his own Preacher, recreating the trailer with himself starring in every role.

Despite how much of a refreshing surprise the first ‘Neighbors’ was, I’ll admit I wasn’t particularly looking forward to the sequel, which looked dispensable and derivative. The poster and trailer for ‘Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising’ made it clear that Nick Stoller’s sequel to the 2014 Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne comedy was simply replicating the original premise and gender-swapping it to raise the stakes. It seemed like the expected set-up for a movie to stereotype and villainize young women, ridicule and dumb them down for laughs, and subject them to dick jokes. But it turns out ‘Neighbors 2' is a more pleasant surprise than the first movie. Not only is it one of the best and funniest comedy sequels, but the most feminist, self-aware and gay-inclusive mainstream comedy of the year, if not ever.

Neighbors can suck. I’ve had terrible neighbors who vacuum at 1 o’clock in the morning, ones who fight with wooden bats in the hallway, and ones who decided it was a brilliant idea for their band to play a hardcore metal cover of Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself.’ The scenarios for crappy neighbors are endless, which is good news for the new sequel to the Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne 2014 comedy.

AMC may have curiously opted a to eschew Fear The Talking Dead as a title (they were okay with puns for Talking Bad), but Preacher will have no such luck when it comes to its own Hardwick-hosted after-show. That’s right, we’ll all be Talking Preacher after the May 29 premiere.

For all its initial trailers and pilot reviews, AMC’s Preacher has done a serviceable job of keeping its pilot under wraps, save for one widely-reported gag that emerged out of SXSW screenings. The bit even appears to have caught the attention of Tom Cruise, as Seth Rogen reveals that the actor’s camp reached out over an explosive joke.

Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Preacher is one of those tricky properties to properly adapt. Remain too faithful and you run the risk of creating a laughably absurd, tonally catastrophic mess. Venture too far away from the source material and you may alienate the very fan base you wish to please. Thankfully, producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and showrunner Sam Catlin have hit that rare sweet spot, and though the pilot episode of AMC’s Preacher does recalibrate some of Ennis and Dillon’s basic plotting and setups, the essential spirit and characters of the graphic novel remain delightfully the same.

Besides being hilarious, Neighbors never struck me as the kind of movie that needed a sequel. Frat moves in next store to family, they fight, they resolve, fin. But, Neighbors made so much money, there was no chance there wasn’t going to be a sequel, and now here we are...

One Garth Ennis comic adaptation for Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg simply wasn’t enough, and now the duo are at it again. Following initial development, the two will next direct and produce an adaptation of Ennis’ superhero-policing The Boys at Cinemax, written by a familiar name for Supernatural fans.