Better Call Saul! - Breaking Bad Spinoff A Go At AMC

[ThePowerCosmic]

If it brings back Mike as Saul's PI, I'm all for it.

Mike! I'd love to see that guy again. One of my favorite characters.

 

[Figs]

Will he convince a woman he is Kevin Costner?!

They have to include this in an episode if it's a prequel. I would be shocked if they didn't.

 

[Schlosser85]

I'm dubious about this. Like someone else said, I feel like Saul is the kind of colorful supporting character who's best in small doses. I don't really feel like he's a character to center a whole show around.

 

[Sawyer]

Better Call Saul May Be Prequel/Sequel Hybrid

 

[Man in the Suit]

http://variety.com/2013/tv/news/breaking-bad-writers-join-better-call-saul-staff-1200981189/

 

[Sawyer]

Good stuff. Wonder if this means Hutchison won't be writing on The Strain anymore or what...

 

[TheNextNolan22]

Nice!

 

[Sawyer]

Can't wait to see what kind of supporting cast they surround Saul with.

 

[Soapy]

If Huell and Kuby aren't in the show, someone, somewhere ****ed up.

Edit: Has it been confirmed whether or not it's a prequel or if takes place after Breaking Bad?

 

[TheNextNolan22]

Huell and Kuby are musts. Also, maybe thrown in Badger and Skinny Pete. Maybe have Saul be the first lawyer they ever had.

 

[Sawyer]

Everyone assumed this would be post-BB, but then when info was released after the series order, it said it would be a prequel. But then there was an interview with Bob Odenkirk last month implying that it could be a bit of both, so who the hell knows...

Some people think that, because it might be a prequel, that leaves Huell/Kuby out. I say not so fast. Just because we didn't see them in the first handful of Saul's appearances on the show, doesn't mean they weren't there. It's not as if we spent every waking moment looking at Saul's business, day in day out. It was Walt's show, and Saul was on the sidelines of that.

 

[Sawyer]

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/12/31/breaking-bad-vince-gilligan-better-call-saul-community/2/

What has been the big challenge in formulating Better Call Saul? And can you clarify how much of the show will be a prequel and whether we might see scenes that take place after the events of Breaking Bad? Are we going to hop around in time a little?
Peter Gould is a wonderful writer and producer and director who worked on Breaking Bad with me from the first season, and he created the character of Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk). He and I have been turning that over in our heads quite a bit. We think, by and large, this show will be a prequel, but the wonderful thing about the fractured chronology we employed on Breaking Bad for many years is the audience will not be thrown by us jumping around in time. So it’s possible that we may indeed do that, and we’ll see the past and perhaps the future. Nothing is written in stone yet, we’re still figuring it out, but the thing we realize is tricky with the character is that Saul Goodman is very comfortable in his own skin. He seems to be a character who is pretty happy with himself, especially when we first meet him. He seems to be a pretty happy-go-lucky guy, and that makes him everything that Walter White is not. And that also makes for tricky drama. When I say drama, even in a comedy, you want drama, you want tension and conflict, and a character that at heart seems at peace with himself is intrinsically undramatic. [Laughs] So we’ve been thinking about how to address that issue.

Could some of the action be set in the Breaking Bad era as well?
It could. That’s why I love the possibilities of the show so much. Anything is possible, and I can’t make any promises that we will indeed see that kind of stuff, but I can tell you from a writer’s point of view, it’s very freeing and emboldening to have those opportunities available to you.

How many characters from Breaking Bad might pop up or even have an extended role?
The character that springs to mind would be Mike (Jonathan Banks). That would be a great deal of fun. I would say the sky’s the limit, at least theoretically speaking. Realistically speaking, we’ve got a whole lot of actors, and the world is now well-aware of their wonderful talents and abilities, and therefore Breaking Bad has probably made it tougher for Peter and I to get some of these folks pinned down for another TV show. They’re off making big movies and doing Broadway plays and whatnot, and that’s exactly the way it should be. That is a high-class problem that we will have to contend with as we go forward with Better Call Saul, if we do indeed want to touch base with some of these characters… Better Call Saul could be The Love Boat of its generation, where instead of Milton Berle showing up in a sailor’s cap, hopefully it could be Aaron Paul, also in a sailor’s cap. [Laughs]

How much of this is a subconscious desire to extend the amazing experience that you all had on Breaking Bad?
Oh, I think you’re right, and I don’t think that desire is subconscious. I reluctantly came to the realization several years ago that we needed to end Breaking Bad before the audience lost interest. We needed to end it at the height of its interest in the audience, and I feel we accomplished that. I feel very lucky for having it work out that way. And it’s not even subconscious on my part — I want to keep the party going on some level. I’ve always loved the character Saul Goodman, I’ve always felt like there’s a whole world of story possibilities contained within him and the world that he inhabits, and I would just love to see some version of this world continue. By its very design, Better Call Saul has to be a different kind of show, and we’re not looking to simply keep Breaking Bad going by having a spin-off series. It has to stand on its own two legs as its own series, otherwise there’s no point in doing it. It will be Saul Goodman’s world, it won’t be Walter White’s, and it will have a different feel, even though there will be some overlap on the Venn Diagram that exists between Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. But it will have to succeed on its own terms as its own show. If it doesn’t, it won’t be satisfying, and satisfaction is the key word. We want to satisfy.

 

[Harry_Lime02]

Anyone get the feeling this is just never gonna happen? I dunno, this project screams "Development Hell" to me.

 

[Maximus One]

I wouldn't say all that just yet

 

[Man in the Suit]

Yeah, they just made a deal with Netflix. Pretty sure it's happening. (And the fact there's now a writers room.)

 

[Sawyer]

Anyone get the feeling this is just never gonna happen? I dunno, this project screams "Development Hell" to me.

It's gotten a series order, so... I'm going to say no.

 

[Mario_Galaxy]

Really, I feel like a show about Mike and his past would write itself better than one about Saul. I'm cautious about it all, because even though I trust the writers it seems so much like they're purely wanting to keep a party going when it's seemingly over. I'd love to be proven wrong, and they do seem to be truly meditating on what they might do.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

Anyone get the feeling this is just never gonna happen? I dunno, this project screams "Development Hell" to me.

It got a series order so...

 

[Shifty]

They'll film in the spring and will air over August/September.

 

[Sawyer]

I don't get why people act as though Saul is just inherently a less series-worthy character than some of the others. We know next to nothing about his pre-Walt history and tonally, I imagine a series based on him would be something quite different than Breaking Bad.

I think Saul is much more spinoff worthy than someone like Mike, to be honest.

 

[RetroNaz]

It would be nice to see a post Breaking Bad world reaction to Walt's death, and maybe a little more of the public's perception of who this "Heisenberg" was.

 

[HighFivingMF]

It would be nice to see a post Breaking Bad world reaction to Walt's death, and maybe a little more of the public's perception of who this "Heisenberg" was.

It would be cool if it opened with Saul managing a Cinnabon, hearing about Walt's death and then going on to narrate that life wasn't always this way for him and all that jazz.

 

[georgec]

I think it was said somewhere that BCS would be a prequel. Maybe I'm thinking of something else.

 

[Shifty]

I think for the first season they'll maybe keep it Breaking Bad final season spoiler free. Just let it stand on its own, let anyone watch the series who hasn't seen Breaking Bad.

 

[Sawyer]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/better-call-saul-mad-men-670045

Better Call Saul, which focuses on the evolution of Bob Odenkirk's Saul Goodman before he became Walter White's attorney, will debut in November. (A specific date has not yet been determined.)