After 49 years in the crypt, The Exorcist is about to manifest itself in a revival that David Gordon Green will be conjuring up for Blumhouse productions. It’s just been revealed that he will be directing the new film from a screenplay he’s co-writing with Scott Teems, Danny McBride, and Peter Sattler. And, the role of Chris MacNeil will be reprised by Ellen Burstyn, who won an Oscar Best Actress nomination for her performance in William Friedkin’s 1973 film. Appearing with her will be Leslie Odom, Jr. and Ann Dowd. It’s still unclear whether Linda Blair will be joining the new cast.
Green, an acclaimed purveyor of horror films—he directed three slasher flicks in the Halloween franchise—admits he was actually thinking of getting involved with a less scary project when producer Jason Blum asked him to direct the first installment in a new Exorcist trilogy.
“If anybody’s followed my career, I’m always about left turns,” Green told The Hollywood Reporter. “Once I feel comfortable, I’ve got to get out of there and go do something that I don’t know and that is dangerous and vulnerable.
That’s the stuff that really appeals to me.
He continued: “Fortunately, I’ve been able to exercise that through a lot of comedic work on television and some other things I’ve been able to do in between horror projects.
But I really did have every intention of saying, ‘I’m going to push pause on horror,’ as much as I love the genre.”
Greene admitted that he was drawn to the Exorcist project because he felt that it would be “extraordinarily different” than what he was doing with his Halloween films. Greene further declared that The Exorcist would be “bringing a lot of the same team together in terms of our makeup and effects team and our cinematographer, but at the same time, we’re bringing in a new group as well to complement and evolve in different ways and to make sure it doesn’t feel redundant or repetitive.”
Green teased that his conversations with Burstyn about her character and the reboot “go deep.” “In a lot of these experiences, I’m looking to talent that is so established and insightful so I just ask a lot of questions and hear what their perspective on the world is and how that informs their creativity,” Green shared. “It’s like calling your spiritual advisor. We’re communicating on different levels and it’s important for a project like this to have that respect for what people have going on inside.”
Production will get underway soon for the new film, which will debut just before Halloween 2023 to mark the golden anniversary of the original William Friedkin version.