The first collaboration between director William Friedkin and author/screenwriter William Peter Blatty produced one of the most famous / notorious horror films in movie history. (Um, The Exorcist.)
Now, as Mr. Friedkin promotes a limited theatrical re-release and Blu-ray disc of The Exorcist and prepares to shoot the film Killer Joe in Louisiana, he may also be ready to re-team with Mr. Blatty after almost forty years, to adapt the novel Dimiter. Read More »
William Peter Blatty, author of the original Exorcist novel and subsequent Oscar winning screenplay, has revealed that the big boss of the 1973 movie, William Friedkin, has agreed to direct a new version. Brace yourself for a 3D do-over with a younger cast and all-CG effects… then unbrace because, actually, I don’t think that’s what we’re set for here at all. No need to spin your head and spew pea soup quite yet…. but how will Mark Kermode, The World’s Biggest Exorcist Fan, react to this news, I wonder?
Blatty has written the new Exorcist in the form of a miniseries teleplay. If Mad Men, The Sopranos and The Wire have shown me anything (besides women in tight sweaters, sudden cuts to black and 101 reasons to not go to Baltimore) it’s that the expectations for even quite mainstream television can be allowed to overlap with the expectations we typically reserve for literature. This could work well for the new Exorcist.
On the bigger canvas of a miniseries, Blatty would be able to include a lot of the original novel’s material not seen in the movie, as well as make some fresh changes he’d have us believe are for the best.
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