Hollywood movies

Universal Pictures to produce new ‘Exorcist’ film trilogy

Rappler.com

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Universal Pictures to produce new ‘Exorcist’ film trilogy

REBOOT. Universal Pictures is helming a new trilogy based on the 1973 horror cult classic.

The Exorcist's Facebook page

'Halloween' director David Gordon Green will serve as director and screenwriter

Cult horror classic The Exorcist is coming back!

Universal Pictures is set to produce a new Exorcist trilogy reboot. It’s set for a simultaneous release in theaters on October 13, 2023, and on NBC’s streaming service Peacock.

Universal Pictures acquired the rights to the 1973 horror film for $400 million, according to a report by New York Times.

A sequel was announced in 2020 but Universal Pictures was not yet involved. Blumhouse (Get Out, The Purge) is now set to co-produce the films with Universal Pictures.

David Gordon Green will serve as both the screenwriter and director. Green’s most recent film, Halloween Kills, is the 12th installment to the iconic slasher horror Halloween franchise starring Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode.

Among those set to produce the film are David Blum from Blumhouse and David Robinson of Morgan Creek Entertainment, which was the studio that originally held the rights to the franchise. 

Academy Award-winning actress Ellen Burstyn returns as Chris MacNeil, opposite Hamilton’s Leslie Odom Jr. who plays the father of a demon-possessed child who is in desperate need of help and finds himself in the company of Chris.

This massive deal by Universal Pictures follows streaming services’ moves to acquire rights to box-office hit films – Netflix will now helm two sequels to Knives Out, while Amazon Prime Video will be premiering the Coming 2 America sequel. As Peacock struggles to earn market share among streaming giants such as Netflix and Disney, the Universal-owned streaming service looks to reel in more subscribers through exclusive releases.

The Exorcist was a 1973 horror movie based on a novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty. The Oscar-nominated film starred Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, and Linda Blair, who played 12-year-old Regan MacNeil, the victim of demonic possession that her mother and two priests try to save her from. The movie went on to gross $441 million and became the first horror movie to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. – with reports from Adrian Soriano/Rappler.com

Adrian Soriano is a Rappler intern.

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