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After a successful franchise reboot with the “Halloween” trilogy, David Gordon Green now attempts to do the same with the far more complex horror classic “The Exorcist.”
Green’s “The Exorcist: Believer,” opening nationwide Friday, eliminates every one of the less than stellar “Exorcist” spawns of the last half century to begin with a direct sequel to director William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning original, which was adapted from William Peter Blatty’s bestselling novel about a young girl’s terrifying possession by a demon.
“Like so many filmmakers, I was incredibly inspired by the film that Friedkin made in 1973. What it did as a touchstone before was so brilliant and timeless” Green, 48, said last week in a Zoom interview.
“It didn’t fall into the traps and tropes of horror movies. It played — as he referred to it — as ‘a theological thriller.’ And I think that’s the right attitude that you have to take when you’re making something that deals with the sensitive topics that go from spiritual to clinical. I wanted to follow in that DNA.
“There were a couple of ingredients that were really important to me, in addition to some of his technical genius that I could be inspired by. But if I could license (Mike Oldfield’s) ‘Tubular Bells’ and have that iconic music part of this movie, that would be a real thrill.
“If,” he continued, “I could invite Ellen Burstyn and somehow convince her to be a part of this and return to this character, Chris MacNeil, that she created 50 years ago, that would give me the tools I needed in confidence to step from what he made 50 years ago and into a story that was meaningful to me, personal to me, that I could put my signature on.”
Burstyn, a Tony, Oscar and Emmy winner with six Oscar nominations, is now 90. Before he wrote this role for her, did he check to see if she was able?
“I had to check on me to make sure I can keep up with her,” Green answered. “When I first reached out to her, we spoke about books and spirituality and our shared work in the movie business. I read her autobiography and just fell in love with her.
“When I did have a script and the audacity to present it to her, I think she saw not only were my intentions really ambitious but pure towards her and inviting her to be a collaborator on this journey.
“I looked at her as the Queen Bee of our production and was honored for her to be a part of it.”
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