Exorcist 4: The Beginning

anyone heard of this?

from upcominghorrormovies.com
Tells the story of Father Merrin's journey as a young priest to Africa in the early 20th century, which led to his first encounter with the evil forces.

Shooting begins in November in Morocco before moving to England.

Swedish actor, Stellan Skarsgård, will replace Liam Neeson, who dropped out of the project because of scheduling conflicts.


i can't wait for this!

old news but welcome to the forum

[Doombear]

Yes, the movie will feature newborn Reagan, and show what led to her fall to the dark side, including her first conversation with Captain Howdy, her first wetting accident and the horror of her spitting out mashed peas for the first time. Pazuzu will still be a small Locust, and fly into the nursery over her crib. Anybody want to run with me on this?

anymore info about the movie?
i hope it's as good as the first,but i think nothing will be as good as the first one,that one fliped the movie world around!

[KillerCannabis]

Here's some news... its going to suck. Really, there is little hope for this in my mind.

[rxfiend]

from: http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsro...3schrader.html

It's not unheard of for a movie studio to clash with a director over the editing of his film. The studio might order reshoots to make a film work better, or even re-edit it themselves. But writer-director Paul Schrader finds himself in a peculiarly unique position: After hiring Schrader to direct "Exorcist: The Beginning," the movie company that chose him — Morgan Creek Productions — has shelved his film, hired a new director, writer and cast and is reshooting the entire movie.

It may be a first. But it's the kind of cinema history Schrader would rather not be associated with.

"It happens in TV all the time but in movies, I think, it's without precedent," says Schrader, writer of such films as "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull" and director of "American Gigolo," "Affliction" and "Auto-Focus." "As we speak, they're making a second version of the same premise. They're shooting in Rome with a new cast, script, sets, locations. I find myself as a bit of film-history trivia."

Schrader, a Chappaqua resident, has to be careful about what he says about the film and Morgan Creek. In order to settle his contract for directing the project, Schrader had to sign a nondisparagement clause: "But that doesn't block me from saying that my film deserves to be seen."

A spokesman for Morgan Creek Productions declined to comment on Schrader or the film.

The fourth movie to be spun from "The Exorcist," William Peter Blatty's 1971 best-seller, "Exorcist: The Beginning" is a prequel to the original story, about the early history of Father Merrin, the exorcist played by Max von Sydow in the original.

The film had a troubled history when Schrader took it on in mid-2002. Originally written by William Wisher ("Terminator 2"), then rewritten by Caleb Carr ("The Alienist"), it was set to go into production with Liam Neeson as Father Merrin and John Frankenheimer directing. But when Frankenheimer died, Schrader, who was finishing "Auto-Focus," was hired. Neeson dropped out and was replaced by Stellan Skarsgard.

It was Schrader's first studio film in 20 years. He signed on, he says, because the script was for a psychological horror film, rather than a special-effects-dependent splatter flick.

"The story was more of a historical adventure," Schrader says. "The decision had been made before they hired me not to do hard-core horror, with the spinning heads and the pea soup."

Production in Morocco and Rome went relatively smoothly, according to Aaron Barsky, the first assistant director, who now jokes, "I think we did such a good job that they made a sequel to our prequel."

"I thought the script was very good," Barsky says. "It was more like 'The Omen' than 'The Exorcist.' Paul and I would discuss how we wanted to make a picture where people would come out and say, 'It's not that spooky,' and then not sleep well the next three nights. I was happy with the work and proud of the movie."

After screening his cut of the film for Morgan Creek chairman James G. Robinson in mid-2003, Schrader had a brief conversation with Robinson, who told him he thought the film was long. "Otherwise, there were no notes," Schrader says. "So I took 10 minutes out."

Then Schrader's editor was fired and Morgan Creek came back to Schrader and told him to make the movie "scarier."

"It wasn't presented as a huge crisis and I changed it as best I could to heighten the scares, but I also pointed out that I didn't have the footage for that," he says. Morgan Creek took the film away from him and began recutting it themselves. "They were editing through last summer but it wasn't getting scarier. Suddenly, the idea of reshooting grew and grew."

Schrader was removed from the project and a new director, Renny Harlin ("Cutthroat Island"), was brought in. What began initially as an effort to reshoot part of the film turned into a whole new movie.

Janet Maslin, a Pleasantville resident and former New York Times film critic, has seen Schrader's version. "I've heard of movies that went straight to video because they were low-end and cheesy," she says, "but that's not the case here. This film is beautifully shot. ... They'd be crazy just to pitch it.

"Paul takes the battle between good and evil very seriously," she adds. "He makes dark, spiritually despairing films. Did they even read Paul's resume before they hired him?"

It's not the first time Morgan Creek has drastically reworked an "Exorcist" sequel, according to a recent article in the British online magazine The Observer. In 1990, Blatty himself directed "Legion," a low-budget film version of his sequel to "The Exorcist;" Morgan Creek ordered reshoots that included a new cast and elaborate special-effects.

Schrader is perplexed, if only because he shot the script he was given. He'd picked up rumblings while he was in production ("Toward the end, I heard comments that it needed to be scarier") — but still was surprised when Morgan Creek paid him off and shelved his film.

"Buyer's remorse is probably the simplest way to explain it," Schrader says. "It's a unique situation where one man can say, 'No, let's go back and do a different one.'"

Morgan Creek has no plans to release his film in any medium, despite its $35-million pricetag.

"It all exists in a computer somewhere," he says. "In the world of DVDs, it might emerge at some point. Or it will enter into film history as one of the great unseen movies."

[Hellbilly]

Seems to be the latest trend. Craven just did a remake of his own movie CURSED
Still have high hopes for Exorcist 4 and hopefully we will get to see the Schrader version as well.