‘Better Call Saul’: Vince Gilligan confirms show will film in Albuquerque; open to Aaron Paul cameo
Ever so slightly, the veil is starting to be lifted for “Better Call Saul.” This series was originally conceived as a sitcom, changed more to a one-hour drama, and we know that it will be a prequel to what brought Bob Odenkirk’s Saul Goodman to the place that he eventually was in “Breaking Bad.” So what is the latest reveal? That the show will be shot in the same city in New Mexico.
Speaking in a cover story with The Hollywood Reporter, Vince Gilligan, who will executive-producer the series but will not run it (that honor instead goes to Peter Gould) made it clear that Albuquerque would be the site again of filming while describing the important reason to not shift the show away to a different part of the country:
“We’re both one-hour drama guys. So we figured, ‘Why not shoot Saul in the same way?’ Let’s shoot it in Albuquerque, let’s get as much of the crew back together as possible, and let’s do it the way we did it before so that it will be of a piece with that pre-existing fictional universe that we had so much fun creating.”
Gilligan expects that there will be a much greater amount of comedy in this series than in “Breaking Bad”, and that he is open to Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston making cameos at some point in the show so long as they stay open to it.
This show has a lot of potential, but it also has many questions. For one, can you really make a show out of a supporting character like Saul and have the tone be similar? Also, how do you make Odenkirk play younger than Saul looked five years ago? There is probably going to be a certain amount of suspending belief and makeup going on here to make this seedy lawyer look like he’s got his stuff a little bit more together. After all, he did presumably before Walt turned up and ruined everything. (The sequel to “Better Call Saul” can be him managing a mall store in Omaha … real exciting.)
While we wait for production to start on this series, Odenkirk has already lined up another gig starring in the FX limited series “Fargo.” There is no premiere date yet for “Better Call Saul,” but we imagine a time in the summer or fall of next year.
Photo: AMC