It’s been summoned forth to the brink of production before being condemned to the fiery pits of development hell. However, The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Fox has ordered a TV pilot of The Exorcist.
Three years ago, it was Martha Marcy May Marlene director Sean Durkin that was attached to adapt William Blatty’s spine-chilling novel for the small screen, though once the project began spinning its wheels, Durkin soon moved on. Leave it to Jeremy Slater (Fantastic Four), then, to pen the screenplay, with plans in place for James Robinson, David Robinson and Barbara Wall to executive produce.
Morgan Creek, holders of The Exorcist license, was once eyeing a TV reboot to coincide with the 40th anniversary of William Friedkin’s seminal horror masterpiece, though a prolonged spell in pre-production ultimately placed the project on the back-burner. Now, Slater’s rendition has been offered a new lease of life, with Fox brass pitching the reimagining as a “serialized psychological thriller following two very different men tackling one family’s case of horrifying demonic possession and confronting the face of true evil.”
The jury’s still out on whether this can be seen as a potential redemption for the prestigious horror IP, which has experienced its fair share of underwhelming duds in the form of Exorcist II: The Heretic, The Exorcist III, Exorcist: The Beginning and, more recently, unremarkable spinoff Dominion: A Prequel to the Exorcist.
A pilot order for The Exorcist is a tentative vote of confidence from Fox, though there’s still much to be done before Jeremy Slater’s is ordered to series. We’ll keep you posted as this story develops.