A-list actress Scarlett Johansson and young “Hamnet” breakout Jacobi Jupe will have some company in “The Exorcist” film, set in New York City, from writer/director Mike Flanagan. As veteran actress Diane Lane (“Anniversay”) has taken an undisclosed part in the legacy horror film that hails from Blumhouse and Universal Pictures.
This neat casting update comes to us from Deadline, as Flanagan took the franchise reins from David Gordon Green after his installment (part one of a planned trilogy after working with Blumhouse/Universal on the “Halloween” legacy sequel trilogy) didn’t make the kind of critical and box office success needed to continue with sequels. Instead, studio brass and producers like Jason Blum decided to pivot and give the next movie to Flagahan, who has an established history working within established horror universes, as he did with “Doctor Sleep,” a sequel to “The Shining.”
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The original 1973 release from the late William Friedkin, unlike a lot of contemporary horror movies of the era, took the subject matter deadly seriously (many horror movies of the early 1970s were either campy or quickly made for a niche young adult audience). Friedkin used his previous experience making documentaries and belief in the material to present audiences a chilling experience that helped establish a more adult tone (something echoed with his crime pic “The French Connection“) for the genre and employed master-level practiacal effects and make-up (many forget that Max von Sydow was seemlessly aged-up by decades, despite Oscar-nominee Linda Blair‘s make-up overshadowing that) that has since made “The Exorcist” one of THEE landmark horror movies of not only the 1970s.
Another reason “The Exorcist” is considered one of the greatest horror movies ever made it ended up landing 10 Oscar nominations in 1974, which included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and the film’s cast, such as Blair, Ellen Burstyn, and Jason Miller, also earned acting noms (winning Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound). Its prestige could be seen as a sort of counter for those thinking that Ryan Coogler‘s “Sinners” (nabbing an impressive 16 nominations in total, the most for any film) is some outlier because the Academy has always been “repelled” by horror films or sees them as lesser projects, not the case.
While Johansson has been well known for her family-friendly tentpole projects, she isn’t unfamiliar with exploring darker subject matter, having played a serial killer alien in Jonathan Glazer‘s underrated sci-fi thriller “Under the Skin” and appearing in Brian De Palma‘s noir thriller “The Black Dahlia” set around the infamous/brutal L.A. murder case.
We’re sure more actors will be joining as production ramps up. Universal has already set the film’s official release date for Friday, March 12, 2027, so we don’t have to wait too much longer before seeing what Flanagan and his team have been cooking up with “The Exorcist.”
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
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- Christopher Marc
