‘The Exorcist’ Being Adapted For Television By ‘Martha Marcy May Marlene’ Director
The Exorcistis a landmark movie. Along withPsycho, it legitimized horror as a genre — what had previously been relegated to drive-in and second-feature filler was now big business.William Friedkin’s adaptation ofWilliam Peter Blatty’s novel (scripted by Blatty) scored a Best Picture Oscar nomination and nine other Oscar nods. (Best Picture went toThe Sting, butThe Exorcistdid take Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay.)
But all things are now ripe for re-adaptation, and so producers are turning towards Blatty’s novel once more. This time, the book is to be adapted into a ten-episode TV series, and the director in charge will beSean Durkin, who madeMartha Marcy May Marlene. It’s actually such a good fit that I can’t even muster the urge to be upset about a remake.
Vulturesays that Durkin is backed by Morgan Creek and producer Roy Lee (The Departed,The Ring). The site also says,
The show doesn’t have a network home at this point, and will reportedly be formally shopped a couple weeks from now.
Martha Marcy May Marlenedemonstrated that Durkin has a precise control of tone and menace, and I can very easily see how he might be able to do wonders with this material. Even if the show ends up on a broadcast network that doesn’t allow super-explicit content, he should be able to create a chilling series. And really, Friedkin’s film has a lock on the explicit version ofThe Exorcist, so why try to compete with that? There’s no way to top what’s in that movie. But there might be a way to create a parallel take that exploits the long-form possibilities of television.
