“Jurassic World: Rebirth” and former Marvel alum Scarlett Johansson has been announced as the lead for Mike Flanagan’s new take on “The Exorcist” franchise at Blumhouse and Universal Pictures.
“Doctor Sleep” and “Gerald’s Game” director Flanagan, the creator of acclaimed Netflix series like “The Haunting of Hill House” and “Midnight Mass,” wrote the script and is directing and producing the new feature.
Universal spent $400 million in 2021 to land a new “Exorcist” trilogy from 2018’s “Halloween” director David Gordon Green. The first film crashed and burned, “The Exorcist: Believer” debuting in 2023 to bad reviews and just $137 million at the box office.
Ditching that plan, the studio opted to give carte blanche creative control of the property to Flanagan – allowing him to deliver a new take of whatever he wants to do. The result is a project said to be set in the ‘Exorcist universe’ but isn’t a reboot, remake or sequel.
Previously, Flanagan says the plan is to do something that has “never been done within the franchise – something that honours what came before it but isn’t built on nostalgia”. He also aims to make the scariest movie he’s ever made.
Flanagan has most recently been working on his “Carrie” series for Amazon MGM Studios with that project having wrapped filming last month.
Source: THR
