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A TV series that's reportedly close to a green light for the fall season centers around a desperate high school teacher in Albuquerque who starts a crystal meth business to make money.

"Breaking Bad" comes from Vince Gilligan, one of the producers of "The X-Files," and it stars Bryan Cranston, who played the dad on the Fox sitcom "Malcolm in the Middle."

The Sony Pictures pilot was shot in Albuquerque earlier this year, and Variety reported last week that "details still need to be worked out" before the channel AMC adds the show to its lineup. AMC is known for showing classic films, but it is starting to air series and original programming.

Variety reported that the show is shot and set in New Mexico. Albuquerque comedian Steven Michael Quezada, who was cast in the pilot, said he expects a call next week telling him that shooting will begin in late summer or early fall.

Quezada plays Gomez, a drug agent on the show, and he said the producers take an intelligent approach to the subject of criminal activity.

"It's intriguing and gets you involved," he said.

Ann Lerner, Albuquerque's film liaison, said she couldn't comment on the content of the show because it's not a done deal. When asked about the effect the show's depiction of criminal activity on Albuquerque's reputation, she pointed to a variety of stories shot here and depicting the city.

"I believe in freedom of speech and in the Bill of Rights," Lerner said. "And I believe in the ratings system for movies."

Lisa Strout, director of the New Mexico Film Office, said her office reads all scripts for potential shoots and rejects only those that would likely get a rating of NC-17, which usually involves explicit sex or excessive violence. She said she couldn't recall rejecting a script in the past five years.

"First and foremost, we're not censors," Strout said. "We're not determining whether we personally like or dislike a movie."

In "Breaking Bad," Cranston's character gets news that he has a terminal illness and realizes he must provide for his wife and a child with a disability. His end-of-life crisis manifests itself in criminal activity, like the meth business.

"I think it's crazy," Quezada said of the plot of the pilot, "but when I read the script I think he (Gilligan) got away with it. He wrote it the right way."

Strout said she couldn't discuss the content of the script, but she said, "I can tell you it's not glorifying the activity, which makes a lot of difference to me, personally."

Quezada said the series won't necessarily focus on the meth story line and will delve into the idea of what a man on the brink will do for his family.

"I know he's doing bad things," Quezada said, "but you see this good guy doing bad things for good reasons. . . . I think it's going to show that not all people who do bad things are bad people. But they make bad decisions."

Lerner said the city generally doesn't screen projects shot here for content, though she did recall reading the first few pages of a script that obviously was pornographic. She said she rejected it.

"There are so many films that are made here, and there's going to be more and more," she said. "It's about judgment, I guess, and I'm not sitting in a position of judging movies."

The state Film Office says more than 65 movies and TV series have been shot in New Mexico since 2003.

Strout says the Film Office is obligated to check the content of every movie submitted.

"Even if someone tells us they're doing `Happy Feet 2,' rated G - by law, we read it anyway," she said.

Gilligan was a producer for the Fox hit "The X-Files" during most of its seven-year run, ending in 2002 with the billing of executive producer. The Internet Movie Database credits him with writing 30 of the show's episodes.

Cranston was nominated three times for an Emmy and once for a Golden Globe during the six-year run of "Malcolm in the Middle," also on Fox, according to IMDB. The show went off the air last year. Cranston also starred in five episodes of "Seinfeld" in the mid-Õ90s.

Lerner said Albuquerque is getting a reputation as an emerging city and that getting its name dropped on TV and in movies is a good thing. She said many people mention "Little Miss Sunshine," last year's independent movie hit that is set partly in Albuquerque but wasn't shot here.

"There's a very positive feeling when the word Albuquerque is ID'd," Lerner said. "That's huge. That's a very positive impact when people hear the name of the city (in films)."

And what about shows like "Breaking Bad" that feature an Albuquerque high school teacher cooking meth?

"It would be my personal preference that it not be portrayed in a negative light," she said, "but . . . I believe in freedom of speech."