"Breaking Bad" Producers Thinking about Saul Goodman Spin-off

[JamesG]

As "Breaking Bad" Comes to an End, Producers Mull a Saul Goodman Spinoff
Apr 9, 2013
by Michael Schneider


Love "Breaking Bad" and wondering what to do when the show wraps up this summer? Better Call Saul.

"Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan has publicly hinted that he'd like the show's universe to continue in some form, most likely via a spinoff starring Bob Odenkirk as sly, ethically-challenged attorney Saul Goodman.

Now that production has wrapped on the series' final eight episodes, attention will now turn to what's next — and perhaps getting a deal done for the new show.





Insiders stress that no deals are in place yet — including ones for Gilligan, who just returned from the show's New Mexico set, or Odenkirk.

Gilligan would create the pilot with "Breaking Bad" writer Peter Gould — who wrote the Season 2 episode 'Better Call Saul' (in 2009) that first introduced the character.

Sony Pictures TV and AMC will also have to come to a deal as talent is put in place.





Odenkirk has expressed interest in a show, and even joked with Rolling Stone last year that he could see Saul as either the mayor of Las Vegas or as a flashy Los Angeles lawyer.

Gilligan, too, has said several times in interviews that he'd like to make the show happen. As Saul himself once said, "Let's just say I know a guy...who knows a guy...who knows another guy."

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Breaking...n-1063810.aspx

[JamesG]

Vince Gilligan On The Saul Goodman "Breaking Bad" Spin-Off Show
30 May 2013
by Ali Plumb


In the latest issue of Empire - out today - there's a six-page feature on AMC's "Breaking Bad", the TV show that takes Bryan Cranston and makes him a meth lord.

As part of our interviews for the piece, we spoke to showrunner Vince Gilligan, and during our conversation, the topic of the long-rumoured Lone Gunmen-like Saul Goodman spin-off came up, and here's what he had to say.





"Well, you never assume lightning is going to strike twice. Having said that, I think a Saul Goodman show would be a great deal of fun, and a great challenge, and something I would look forward to doing. It’s definitely not set in stone yet, it’s definitely the early days of the process, and it may happen or it may not.

I personally would like to see it happen, because I think it would be its own creation and its own creature, and I think it would exist in a 'Breaking Bad' universe, as it centres on a character that was integral to 'Breaking Bad', but I think it’s its own thing. It’s like comparing an apple to an orange. Or white meth to blue meth.



We would do out very best to make it a very good show indeed, as we always do with 'Breaking Bad', but if it doesn’t come out quite as good then… well, we’ll move heaven and earth to make it every bit as high quality as 'Breaking Bad', but then there’s the intangible question of whether it’ll affect people, whether it’ll move people as much as the mothership show did, and there’s no real answer to that. In fact, the safest answer to that is: 'Probably not to the same level.'

Then you ask yourself, 'Does that mean it’s not worth doing?' I think it is indeed worth doing, and the way to approach it is by knowing that it’s not going to be the same thing. It’s not to be completely of a piece with the original show, but if it’s a challenge, and it’s interesting to us to do it, that’s reason enough.

Worst case scenario, it’s like the spin-off to 'M*A*S*H', 'AfterMASH', that nobody remembers – and I don’t think it hurt 'M*A*S*H' any that it existed. I don’t think we’re going to have that problem, though. Anything based around the character of Saul Goodman and any show starring the wonderful Bob Odenkirk has more than an even chance of being quite good indeed."

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=37670