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In less than two weeks of release in theaters worldwide, director Zach Cregger's Weaponshas passed a major global box office milestone. The epic horror movie debuted to stupendous reviews, and delivered one of the best opening weekend hauls in recent memory. Weapons serves as Cregger's follow-up to his breakout horror hit, Barbarian, which made a little under $50 million worldwide in 2022. Cregger's new film has grossed thrice as much as Barbarian already, and roughly twice as much as the Russell Crowe-led sleeper hit, The Pope's Exorcist.

With around $90 million domestically and another $60 million from overseas markets, Weaponshas generated around $150 million globally in under two weeks. The movie is well...

It’s been one year since Columbia Pictures / Screen Gems brought The Pope’s Exorcist (read our review Here), a supernatural thriller starring Russell Crowe, to theatres. Just two weeks after the film was released, our friends at Bloody Disgusting heard that a sequel was in development… but then things went quiet for a while. Crowe recently said that The Pope’s Exorcist was meant to kick off a trilogy, but the franchise’s progress had been slowed down by “a change of studio heads.” Things have apparently been worked out, though, because producer Jeff Katz of Worldwide Katz has just taken to social media to announce that the Pope’s Exorcist sequel has been given the greenlight!

Katz wrote, “Amorth Nation — I just got the call. It’S Officially Happening!!! “È un seguito, amici miei.”* Thank you to the amazing #ThePopesExorcist fans. You made this happen. Gas up your Lambretta – and get ready to ride.

William Friedkin's most iconic work is his 1973 horror classic, The Exorcist, but what most people don't know is that he made another film about exorcisms. That being said, it's not exactly what you'd think. In 2017, Friedkin released a documentary titled The Devil and Father Amorth, which captures Father Gabriele Amorth's ninth exorcism that he has performed on an Italian woman simply referred to as "Christina." It's a fascinating piece of filmmaking on multiple levels. Given Friedkin's groundbreaking work with his notorious 1973 film, his growing fascination with exorcisms over the years since, and his skill as a documentary filmmaker, The Devil and Father Amorth is made with a recipe for success. Unfortunately, some odd filmmaking choices and shady narrative moves make this project a bit less credible, even if you have faith in some form of spirituality.

This article contains some spoilers for "The Nun II."

If horror has a name, it must be ... Indiana Jones? Scoff if you must, but the first three cinematic adventures of Henry Jones Jr. contain numerous horror movie bonafides, from the melting faces of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to the heart-ripping terror of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and, of course, the rapid-aging transformation seen in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

Honestly, though, it'd be fair if you did scoff, because Indiana Jones has become a little less synonymous with religion-inspired horror imagery thanks to his latter-day sequels, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny." Supposedly the last ever Indy installment (certainly the last with star Harrison Ford), this year's "Dial of Destiny" sent Dr. Jones off with what I consider to be a clever, insightful, and richly layered adventure film.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, William Friedkin's final movie, has been picked up by Paramount Plus for international distribution. The film will release on Showtime in the U.S. The film is a legal drama starring Jason Clarke and Kiefer Sutherland based on a 1953 play by Herman Wouk, following a naval officer on trial for leading a mutiny aboard a ship. The movie features a notable cast and marks a posthumous release for Friedkin, Wouk, and Lance Reddick.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, the final movie from late Exorcist director William Friedkin, has found a streaming home. Friedkin, who passed away on August 7, is best known for The Exorcist, but has also directed other hits like The French Connection, Rules of Engagement, and To Live and Die In L.A., among many others. After 2017's The Devil and Father Amorth, Friedkin's final movie is a legal drama based on a play by Herman Wouk.

The Pope’s Exorcist was a surprise hit when it was released early in 2023, but the entertaining horror movie, starring Russell Crowe, was just the latest in an endless string of glossy exorcism tales churned out by filmmakers over the decades.

Public interest in the process of exorcisms first skyrocketed when director William Friedkin and writer William Peter Blatty launched The Exorcist upon an unsuspecting world back in 1973, having based the iconic film on Blatty’s novel. Friedkin admits that he was inspired to the point of obsession when he was making the movie, but it wasn’t until much later that he decided to meet the most famous real life exorcist of all, Father Gabriele Amorth, who had not only seen The Exorcist, but surprisingly championed it.

“Of course, the special effects are exaggerated,” Amorth told The Sunday Telegraph. “But it is a good film, and substantially exact, based on...

As Hollywood commemorates the life and career of the late William Friedkin, fans are sharing clips and memories of the “Exorcist” director’s famously unfiltered and foul-mouthed takes on cinema… including an expletive-laden strike at the DC film “Batman v. Superman.”

One clip that has gone viral on social media since news of Friedkin’s death broke came from a 2018 documentary “Friedkin Uncut,” a retrospective of the filmmaker’s career as told through his words and those of his collaborators and peers.

At the end of the documentary, Friedkin discusses his then-recent visit to the Venice Film Festival, where he premiered “The Devil & Father Amorth,” a documentary about Catholic priest and exorcist Gabriele Amorth.

While Friedkin loves traveling to Venice and presenting his films there, he says in the documentary that he does not like screening them in competition. While some of his films have been entered into competition at Venice,...

Sitting with William Friedkin a few years ago, I was suddenly caught by surprise. After taking out his iPad, the master filmmaker began to scroll through a series of photos, all taken inside a small room in Vatican City, where he’d been invited to attend a real-life exorcism.

That might not seem so odd to anyone who knows Friedkin’s credits, especially The Exorcist, the 1973 horror film that terrified much of the world. But this wasn’t Hollywood make-believe: there on a screen, in front of me, were images and video recording a living nightmare as furniture slid, objects flew and great gasps heaved from the subject of the exorcism, while an ancient priest chanted in Latin.

The footage — shot by Friedkin himself — became the basis of his 2017 documentary The Devil and Father Amorth, one of his final works (though by no means his last: The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial...

William Friedkin was, simply put, a legend.

His technical prowess, mastery of tone and commitment to storytelling were unparalleled. And so was his willingness to push the boundaries of what was acceptable. It wasn’t that he was merely challenging good taste; it was that he wanted to go beyond what had come before. And sometimes that made people very uncomfortable. Friedkin’s career is largely defined by this kind of artful provocation, and it makes his passing — especially in the current age of pre-packaged, vacuum-sealed mass entertainment — all the more devastating. We didn’t just lose one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation; we lost an outspoken advocate for the kind of movies they just don’t make anymore.

Thankfully, Friedkin left behind a bounty of modern classics – movies that become richer, more rewarding, and, yes, more provocative, the more times you watch them. Here are seven of his most essential,...

William Friedkin, the filmmaker whose acclaimed horror film The Exorcist continues to horrify viewers to this day, has died.

Variety reports that Friedkin died on Monday in Los Angeles with his passing confirmed by Stephen Galloway, a friend of the director's wife, Sherry Lansing. No additional details were shared about the veteran filmmaker's death. He was 87 years old.

Friedkin's passing comes ahead of the debut of what will be his final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. Co-written by Friedkin and directed by the filmmaker, the movie is scheduled to have its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September. The film stars Kiefer Sutherland as a naval officer standing trial for mutiny after taking control of a ship whose captain was behaving erratically. It's Friedkin's first film since directing the 2017 documentary The Devil and Father Amorth, which chronicled the exorcism of an Italian woman.

Released 50 years ago, The Exorcist...

William Friedkin, the Oscar-winning director behind The Exorcist, The French Connection, To Live and Die in L.A., The Boys in the Band, and more, is dead at 87. Friedkin died in Los Angeles, said his wife, former producer and studio head Sherry Lansing.

Born on August 29, 1935, in Chicago, Friedkin started directing television before disgusting audiences with projectile pea soup and dealings with demons. In the mid-’60s, Friedkin shot an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Hour and helmed various telefilms. Before the era was over, he got behind the camera for features like Good Times (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), and The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968).

He started the ’70s off with a band by directing The Boys in the Band. With his name already on the lips of executives everywhere, he moved on to The French Connection, a show-stopping thriller starring Gene Hackman as Detective Popeye Doyle. The French Connection won multiple Oscars,...

One of the all-time great filmmakers, Oscar-winner William Friedkin has passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 87, Bloody Disgusting has learned this afternoon.

William Friedkin won “Best Director” at the Academy Awards in 1972 for The French Connection, and he was nominated in the same category just two years later for The Exorcist.

Released in theaters in 1973, The Exorcist has been terrifying audiences across generations ever since, widely considered to be one of the best – and scariest – movies ever made.

William Friedkin got his start directing the documentary The People vs. Paul Crump in 1962, and a few years later he directed an episode of the TV series “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.” From there, Friedkin directed films including The Thin Blue Line, Good Times, The Birthday Party, and The Boys in the Band, before winning an Oscar for The French Connection in 1972.

In the wake of The Exorcist, which ended...

William Friedkin, the Oscar winner behind The French Connection and The Exorcist who was one of the most admired directors to emerge from a wave of brilliant filmmakers who made their mark in the 1970s, died Monday. He was 87.

Friedkin died of heart failure and pneumonia at his home in Bel Air, his wife, former producer and studio head Sherry Lansing, announced.

His pictures, which also included Sorcerer (1977), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) and Bug (2006), were marked by an exceptional visual eye, a willingness to take what might have been a genre subject and treat it with high seriousness and a sense of how sound could add a subterranean layer of dread, mystery and dissonance to his stories — a haunted and haunting quality that lifted his visceral works into another realm, conveying a preternatural sense of “fear and paranoia, both old friends of mine,” as he said in his 2013 memoir,...

The supernatural thriller The Pope’s Exorcist has been available to watch through Vudu, Fandango’s premium on-demand video service, since the start of this month. The film has now been given a wider digital release (you can check it out on Amazon at This Link), and is set to reach DVD and Blu-ray on June 13th.

A few years ago, The Exorcist director William Friedkin made a documentary about Father Gabriele Amorth (and you can read our review of The Devil and Father Amorth at This Link), who passed away in 2016 at the age of 91. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Gems acquired the rights to tell the story of the exorcist’s life from Michael Patrick Kaczmarek and faith-based media company Loyola Productions. That deal included rights to Amorth’s two international bestselling memoirs An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories, as well as other “detailed...

Academy Award winner Russell Crowe plays real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist, which is now available to watch on PVOD ($24.99) at home.

Bloody Disgusting has been provided with an exclusive featurette video this afternoon, teasing the film’s at-home release and featuring insights from star Russell Crowe and more.

“It’s very hard to make original exorcism-based material,” producer Jeff Katz notes. So how did the filmmakers go about bringing something different to the exorcism arena?

“There’s definitely levels of intrigue and investigation in the movie which feel different from what you might find in another type of horror film,” Russell Crowe explains in the video.

Julius Avery (Overlord) directed The Pope’s Exorcist.

In The Pope’s Exorcist, “Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s leading exorcist, investigates the possession of a child and uncovers a conspiracy the Vatican has tried to keep secret.”

Franco Nero (Django, John Wick:...

Academy Award winner Russell Crowe plays real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist, which will be available to watch at home beginning this week.

The Pope’s Exorcist hits at-home PVOD on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

You can rent the film for $19.99 or buy it for $24.99 over on Vudu.

Screen Gems may very well have a hit franchise on their hands with The Pope’s Exorcist, as Bloody Disgusting recently learned that a sequel is already in early development.

Julius Avery (Overlord) directed The Pope’s Exorcist.

In The Pope’s Exorcist, “Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s leading exorcist, investigates the possession of a child and uncovers a conspiracy the Vatican has tried to keep secret.”

Franco Nero (Django, John Wick: Chapter 2) stars as the titular pope. Laurel Marsden (Ms. Marvel), Cornell S. John (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald), Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Alex Essoe (Doctor Sleep) and Daniel Zovatto (It Follows) also star. Ralph Ineson (The Witch,...

Made on a budget of $18 million, the supernatural thriller The Pope’s Exorcist (read our review Here), which stars Russell Crowe as real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, has racked up over $52 million at the global box office since its release earlier this month. Columbia Pictures / Screen Gems must be very satisfied with how well the movie is doing, because our friends at Bloody Disgusting have been informed that a sequel to The Pope’s Exorcist is now in early development!

Details on the sequel aren’t available yet, but it looks like Crowe is going to have a rematch with the forces of evil.

A few years ago, The Exorcist director William Friedkin made a documentary about Father Gabriele Amorth (and you can read our review of The Devil and Father Amorth at This Link), who passed away in 2016 at the age of 91. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Gems acquired the...

Academy Award winner Russell Crowe plays real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist, the brand new horror movie from director Julius Avery (Overlord). The Screen Gems horror movie has thus far scared up $52 million worldwide, and Bloody Disgusting can exclusively report that a sequel to The Pope’s Exorcist is now in early development.

Bloody Disgusting’s sources indicate that development is underway on The Pope’s Exorcist 2, but we don’t have any further details at this time. We do expect Crowe to return.

Stay tuned for more as we learn it.

The smart thing about The Pope’s Exorcist is that the production budget was quite low, reportedly just $18 million. This set the horror movie up for success, allowing it to become profitable in theaters after just one week of release. The same can’t be said about Universal’s Renfield, which reportedly cost $65 million and has thus far made just $17.9 million.

The Rev. Edward Siebert’s journey with “The Pope’s Exorcist,” a film about arguably the most famous exorcist in the Catholic Church, began with an adventuresome visit to Milan about six years ago.

The Jesuit priest recalls sitting at a restaurant sipping wine and mulling the costly airline ticket he had purchased a day earlier. He also worried about the deal he had just closed with the Society of St. Paul to purchase the rights to the life story of the Rev. Gabriele Amorth — the late Pauline priest known as “the James Bond of exorcists.”

Siebert, who teaches film at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and runs the college’s film production company, had no motion picture credits to his name and wondered at the time: “What have I gone and done?”

Today, he heaves a sigh of relief as a version of Amorth’s life unfurls on the...

What if the Pope ... had an exorcist? Father Gabriele Amorth was a real priest who served as the exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, wrote a bunch of books, and founded the International Association of Exorcists. "The Exorcist" director William Friedkin even made a (not very good) documentary about him, called "The Devil and Father Amorth." Now, Father Amorth gets the Hollywood treatment with "The Pope's Exorcist," a biblically silly movie that has Russell Crowe playing the holy warrior.

Zipping around on a tiny Vespa and looking like he's cosplaying Orson Welles in "F is for Fake," Crowe's Amorth is a badass; a renegade; a rebel. He doesn't play by the church's rules, maaaan! And he's got a killer comeback to anyone who dares question his methods: "You have a problem with me, you take it up with my boss ... the Pope!" Hell yes! If there's a reason to see...

The Pope's Exorcist stars Academy Award winner Russell Crowe along with a diverse cast of actors from all over the world. Crowe plays the titular character, Father Gabriele Amorth, a real-life Catholic priest who claimed to have performed tens of thousands of exorcisms in his career. Drawing inspiration from Amorth's own memoirs and case files, The Pope's Exorcist deals with Amorth's battle against several demons, who possessed innocent people. As the Chief Exorcist of Vatican investigates the case of a possessed boy, he also comes across an ancient conspiracy that the Catholic Church has tried to keep hidden for centuries.

The Pope's Exorcist cast includes some well-known genre actors, such as Franco Nero and Ralph Ineson, and is helmed by Overlord and Samaritan director Julius Avery. The 2023 horror marks the first time a film has directly adapted Amorth's life and career. Previously, one of Amorth's high-profile exorcisms was featured in the 2017 documentary,...

The return of The Exorcist film franchise isn’t the only exorcism horror on the way here in 2023. Julius Avery, the director of 2018’s Overlord, is back with The Pope’s Exorcist, and Fandango has debuted a clip from the movie today. Additionally, tickets are now on sale.

In the clip, which you’ll find below, Father Amorth (Russell Crowe) meets with a very curious group of clergy. He explains that he refers the vast majority of cases to secular doctors… but then there are those cases where he comes face-to-face with true evil.

Bloody Disgusting recently reported that Ralph Ineson (The Witch, The Green Knight) has joined Russell Crowe in the film. Ineson has been cast as the voice of the demon.

Franco Nero (Django, John Wick: Chapter 2) recently joined the cast as the titular pope, starring alongside Russell Crowe as real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth. Laurel Marsden (Ms.

Russell Crowe is back and he’s got some demons to battle.

“The Pope’s Exorcist,” out in April, follows Father Gabriele Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican (played by Crowe), as he takes on his most mysterious case yet – the possession of a young boy whose experience has ties to an ancient Vatican secret. And, yes, it looks pretty spooky.

Amorth was a real person (he passed away in 2016), an exorcist for the Vatican who spoke openly about his work, authoring several books about exorcism and frequently offering his opinion on the subject. He was the subject of a documentary called “The Devil and Father Amorth,” directed by William Friedkin (who directed “The Exorcist”) and had some questionable views about how someone can open themselves up to demonic possession – among them reading the “Harry Potter” books, practicing yoga or blaspheming. While patently bizarre, it at least offers a pretty good...

Yesterday, a featurette promoting The Pope’s Exorcist, a supernatural thriller starring Russell Crowe, arrived online with the promise that a trailer for the film would be released today. Now the trailer is online, and you can check it out in the embed above! The Pope’s Exorcist is coming to us from Columbia Pictures / Screen Gems and is set to reach theatres on April 10th.

A few years ago, The Exorcist director William Friedkin made a documentary about Father Gabriele Amorth (and you can read our review of The Devil and Father Amorth at This Link), a real-life exorcist who passed away in 2016 at the age of 91. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Gems acquired the rights to tell the story of the exorcist’s life from Michael Patrick Kaczmarek and faith-based media company Loyola Productions. That deal included rights to Amorth’s two international bestselling memoirs An Exorcist Tells His...

Julius Avery, the director of 2018’s Overlord, is heading back into the horror genre with The Pope’s Exorcist on April 14, and the first official trailer has arrived this morning.

Watch the official trailer for The Pope’s Exorcist below.

Bloody Disgusting recently reported that Ralph Ineson (The Witch, The Green Knight) has joined Russell Crowe in the film. Ineson has been cast as the voice of the demon.

The Pope’s Exorcist is rated “R” for…

“Violent content, language, sexual references, and some nudity.”

Franco Nero (Django, John Wick: Chapter 2) recently joined the cast as the titular pope, starring alongside Russell Crowe as real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth. Laurel Marsden (Ms. Marvel), Cornell S. John (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald), Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Alex Essoe (Doctor Sleep) and Daniel Zovatto (It Follows) also star.

From Sony’s Screen Gems, The Pope’s Exorcist is based on real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, “the...

Julius Avery, the director of 2018’s Overlord, is heading back into the horror genre with The Pope’s Exorcist this coming April, and Fandango has debuted first-look footage today.

Additionally, Fandango has let us know this afternoon that the official trailer for The Pope’s Exorcist will debut tomorrow, February 22. Watch a featurette below while you wait.

Bloody Disgusting recently reported that Ralph Ineson (The Witch, The Green Knight) has joined Russell Crowe in the film. Ineson has been cast as the voice of the demon.

The Pope’s Exorcist is rated “R” for…

“Violent content, language, sexual references, and some nudity.”

Franco Nero (Django, John Wick: Chapter 2) recently joined the cast as the titular pope, starring alongside Russell Crowe as real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth. Laurel Marsden (Ms. Marvel), Cornell S. John (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald), Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Alex Essoe (Doctor Sleep) and Daniel Zovatto (It Follows) also star.

Columbia Pictures / Screen Gems hasn’t announced a release date for The Pope’s Exorcist, a supernatural thriller starring Russell Crowe, but the movie did just take an important step on its journey to theatre screens: it has earned a rating from the Motion Picture Association. That rating is an R, which it received for “violent content, language, sexual references, and some nudity.”

A few years ago, The Exorcist director William Friedkin made a documentary about Father Gabriele Amorth (and you can read our review of The Devil and Father Amorth at This Link), a real-life exorcist who passed away in 2016 at the age of 91. Crowe is playing Father Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Gems acquired the rights to tell the story of the exorcist’s life from Michael Patrick Kaczmarek and faith-based media company Loyola Productions. That deal included rights to Amorth’s two...

The return of The Exorcist film franchise isn’t the only exorcism horror on the way here in 2023. Julius Avery, the director of 2018’s Overlord, is heading back into the horror genre with The Pope’s Exorcist later this year, and the film from Screen Gems has now been rated.

The Pope’s Exorcist is rated “R” for…

“Violent content, language, sexual references, and some nudity.”

Bloody Disgusting recently reported that Ralph Ineson (The Witch, The Green Knight) has joined Russell Crowe in the film. Ineson has been cast as the voice of the demon.

Franco Nero (Django, John Wick: Chapter 2) recently joined the cast as the titular pope, starring alongside Russell Crowe as real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth. Laurel Marsden (Ms. Marvel), Cornell S. John (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald), Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Alex Essoe (Doctor Sleep) and Daniel Zovatto (It Follows) also star.

From Sony’s Screen Gems,...

Viewers may recognize Ralph Ineson from his on screen roles in such films and TV shows as The Witch, Willow, Chernobyl, and Game of Thrones, among others – and if you’ve seen Ineson in action, you’ve probably also noticed that he has an awesome voice, which is why several credits on his résumé are voiceover roles. So it’s not surprising to hear (from our friends at Bloody Disgusting) that Ineson has been hired to provide the voice of a demon for the supernatural thriller The Pope’s Exorcist, starring Russell Crowe.

A few years ago, The Exorcist director William Friedkin made a documentary about Father Gabriele Amorth (and you can read our review of The Devil and Father Amorth at This Link), a real-life exorcist who passed away in 2016 at the age of 91. Crowe is playing Father Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist.

Crowe and Ineson are joined in the cast by Laurel Marsden (Ms.

Julius Avery, the director of 2018’s Overlord, is heading back into the horror genre with The Pope’s Exorcist, and Bloody Disgusting has learned that Ralph Ineson has joined Russell Crowe in the film. Ineson has been cast as the voice of the demon.

Ralph Ineson is an accomplished screen actor, delivering magnetic performances across film and TV. Ralph’s impressive film credits include The Northman, The Green Knight, True Love, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, The Witch, Ready Player One, and Catherine Called Birdy. Ineson recently finished filming with Phantom Four Films on The First Omen.

Ineson’s television credits include HBO’s Emmy award-winning ‘Chernobyl’ and ‘Game of Thrones’. He is perhaps best known in the UK for playing series regular Chris Finch in cult classic ‘The Office’, and will next be seen on the small screen in ‘The Gallows Pole’.

Ralph Ineson in ‘The Witch’

Franco Nero (Django,...

“The Exorcist” and “The French Connection” auteur William Friedkin is gearing up to direct his first film in five years, an adaptation of the play “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” and “24” star Kiefer Sutherland is in talks to star in the film, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Sutherland would play Lt. Commander Queeg in the film, which is an adaptation of the two-act play by Herman Wouk, itself based on Wouk’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from 1951 “The Caine Mutiny.” And the screenplay for Friedkin’s film is in fact from Wouk himself, a 50-year-old draft based on the original source material, with Friedkin making revisions.

“The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” in particular only shows the court martial scene from the larger story, and it puts the audience in the position of the jury as we only know what’s said in the trial, none of the events that led to the mutiny.

Julius Avery, the director of 2018’s Overlord, is heading back into the horror genre with The Pope’s Exorcist, and Deadline brings us the latest casting news this afternoon.

For starters, Franco Nero has joined the cast as the titular pope, starring alongside Russell Crowe as real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth.

Additionally, Laurel Marsden (Ms. Marvel), Cornell S. John (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald), and Peter DeSouza-Feighoney have also joined the horror movie’s cast.

From Sony’s Screen Gems, The Pope’s Exorcist is based on real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, “the legendary Italian priest who performed over 100,000 exorcisms for the Vatican.”

Alex Essoe (Doctor Sleep) and Daniel Zovatto (It Follows) will also star.

Evan Spiliotopoulos wrote the current draft with revisions by Chuck MacLean, based on Michael Petroni-revised original drafts by Chester Hastings and R. Dean McCreary.

Ángel Gómez (Voices) had previously been attached to direct the movie for Screen Gems,...

William Friedkin’s 1973 horror classic “The Exorcist” is the gift that keeps on giving, with a total of five films spawning out of William Peter Blatty’s source novel, and even a canceled Fox TV series from 2017. Reports emerged back in August that a reboot of the possession tale that started ’em all was in the works from Morgan Creek Entertainment, planned for theaters in 2021.

But director Friedkin is here to tell you that whatever “Exorcist” reboot or remake is in the cards, he has nothing to do with it. “There’s a rumor on IMDb that I’m involved with a new version of ‘The Exorcist,'” he tweeted this week. “This isn’t a rumor, it’s a flat-out lie. There’s not enough money or motivation in the world to get me to do this.”

Indeed, Friedkin hasn’t been involved with any of the “Exorcist” spinoff films,...

Monday, Oct. 26 Father Amorth Exorcism Movie Moving Ahead

Spanish director Ángel Gómez (“Voices”) has been attached to Screen Gems’ project “The Pope’s Exorcist,” based on Father Gabriele Amorth, the lItalian priest who performed over 100,000 exorcisms for the Vatican.

Chester Hastings and R. Dean McCreary wrote the screenplay. Michael Patrick Kaczmarek, Jeff Katz of Worldwide Katz and Loyola Productions President Eddie Siebert, S.J. are producing.

Screen Gems had previously acquired the life rights to Amorth from Kaczmarek and Loyola, including the rights to his memoirs “An Exorcist Tells His Story” and “An Exorcist: More Stories.” Amorth, who died in 2016, was the subject of William Friedkin’s documentary “The Devil and Father Amorth.” The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.

Sound Credit Initiative Advancing

The Cinema Audio Society, the Motion Picture Sound Editors and Association of Motion Picture Sound are launching an online petition as the next step in their Sound Credit Initiative campaign.

Exclusive: Ángel Gómez has been set by Screen Gems to direct The Pope’s Exorcist, a genre film that is based on the exploits of Father Gabriele Amorth. He is the legendary Italian priest who was the Chief Exorcist of the Vatican, and performed over 100,000 exorcisms for the Church.

Chester Hastings and R. Dean McCreary wrote the screenplay.

Michael Patrick Kaczmarek, Jeff Katz of Worldwide Katz and Loyola Productions President Eddie Siebert, Sj are producing. Eric Paquette, Michael Bitar and Giselle Johnson will oversee for Screen Gems.

Gómez made his directing debut on Voices and has become a leading voice of Spanish horror. The film was well received in its theatrical run in Spain and it premieres next month on Netflix. Gomez cut his teeth directing award-winning shorts including Affection and Behind. He is developing the latter as a feature at Lionsgate with Ghost House and Ground Control.

Screen Gems...

A new-to-streaming documentary about the Exorcist director prompts a look through his fascinating back catalogue

For a director who hasn’t made a major film in nearly a decade, William Friedkin is undergoing something of a surprising revival. The 84-year-old American director’s up-and-down career has enjoyed a collective critical appraisal in recent years, while he has been the subject of multiple documentaries: the kind of film-maker-becoming-the-film treatment that few auteurs get once in their careers. One such, admittedly, he made himself. The Devil and Father Amorth (2017), on Netflix, is an indulgent curio that attempts to revive the mythos of Friedkin’s 1973 horror tale of satanic possession, The Exorcist, while Alexandre O Philippe’s still unreleased Leap of Faith takes a longer, more enlightening view on the same film.

YouTube yields Off Season, his strikingly cruel, hard-boiled contribution to The Alfred Hitchcock Hour series...

Matt Tyrnauer's Where's My Roy Cohn? on the streets of New York: "Cohn, I think, was the person who sat between those two worlds and was the gatekeeper between the underworld and the overworld of politics and money and power." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

There is only one filmmaker who has documented Valentino Garavani (Valentino: The Last Emperor); Scotty Bowers (Scotty And The Secret History Of Hollywood); Jane Jacobs (Citizen Jane: Battle For The City), and Ian Schrager (Studio 54). And now Matt Tyrnauer has added Roy Cohn to the list with his insightfully dark Where's My Roy Cohn? Last fall, Matt told me that the idea for the film came out of his Studio 54 work, as Roy Cohn was the lawyer for Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, and showed up prominently in the archival of the infamous club.

Matt Tyrnauer on Gore Vidal: "He was prescient and brilliant.

Want to feel old? The above picture is what the girl from “The Exorcist” looks like today. (Kidding.) William Friedkin’s classic — recently named the fourth-best horror movie of all time by IndieWire — celebrates its 45th anniversary this year, and as part of the festivities, the director and his leading lady Ellen Burstyn recently engaged in a lengthy discussion following a screening presented by the Academy.

The filmmaker, who won the Academy Award for Best Director two years prior to “The Exorcist” for his work on “The French Connection,” is a natural storyteller who does well in the spotlight. It was clear enough from his recent documentary “The Devil and Father Amorth” that he still struggles with his own beliefs (or lack thereof) when it comes to the supernatural in general and demonic possession in particular, and he attempted to clarify those views onstage.

“I think if I was making the film today,...

When William Friedkin says that Hitler and Jesus are the two most interesting characters in history, one is inclined to listen. The Oscar-winning director of “The Exorcist,” “Sorcerer,” and “The French Connection” is fascinated by the extremes they represent: One brought people down to hell with him, the other helped them ascend to heaven. Friedkin proves so talkative in Francesco Zippel’s documentary about him, riffing on matters both cinematic and spiritual, that it’s almost surprising he didn’t pursue a career that allows him to do it more — you can almost imagine him in front of a congregation of his own.

He isn’t the only one with a lot to say. “Friedkin Uncut” also includes testimonials from collaborators and admirers such as Ellen Burstyn, Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, and Francis Ford Coppola; docs of this type never lack for talking heads, but there’s a sense that...

Social entertainment platform TaTaTu has acquired rights for North America and the U.K. to the documentary “Friedkin Uncut” ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week.

Written and directed by Francesco Zippel, “Friedkin Uncut” aims to offer insight into the life and artistic journey of William Friedkin, director of “The French Connection,” “The Exorcist,” “Sorcerer,” “Cruising,” “To Live and Die in L.A.,” and “Killer Joe.”

Friedkin started his career at the age of 16 as a mail room boy at Wgn-tv. He won the Academy Award for best director for 1971’s “The French Connection,” which also won best picture. He received a best director nod two years later for “The Exorcist,” one of its 10 Oscar nominations.

The film includes appearances by Ellen Burstyn, Wes Anderson, Dario Argento, Damien Chazelle, Francis Ford Coppola, Willem Dafoe, Matthew McConaughey, Michael Shannon, Quentin Tarantino, and Edgar Wright.

“Frieddkin Uncut” is...

By Lee Pfeiffer

In 1973, director William Friedkin adapted William Peter Blatty's bestselling novel "The Exorcist" for the screen. The film shocked the industry by becoming an international phenomenon and the movie's impact continues to resonate with audiences of all ages even today. In 2016 Friedkin decided to return to the subject of demonic possession by personally filming the rite of exorcism performed by a priest, Father Amorth, the Chief Exorcist of the Diocese of Rome. The result is his new documentary "The Devil and Father Amorth", which has enjoyed some limited art house screenings while simultaneously being released on DVD. Before we go any further, it is appropriate when covering a film of this type for the reviewer to state his/her personal beliefs or lack thereof in terms of the subject matter. After all, Friedkin does the same in his film, stating that he is predisposed to believe in the possibility of demonic possession.

Rule #1 if you’re choosing to tell a story: choose the appropriate medium, the one that tells your story the best…

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I get lost and attempt to find ourselves in the cult of nonfiction filmmaking. We find rewards, new meaning in our lives, but that’s before things got dark. That’s right, it’s another documentary special episode of the podcast! We start this show off with a few brief thoughts on William Friedkin‘s “The Devil and Father Amorth” but don’t spend too much time on it as it’s kinda, sorta bad as a movie (read The Playlist’s review here).

“Let’s go to the steps.”

Filmmaker William Friedkin is leading a group of journalists around Georgetown, the Washington, D.C. neighborhood that served as the setting for his 1973 blockbuster The Exorcist on a fittingly overcast April day. After a quasi-lecture about his history with the film in Georgetown University’s Healy Hall, we’ve walked through classrooms, courtyards and churches that all played significant roles in the making of the picture and the book that inspired it. Now we’re on one of the streets that actress Ellen Burstyn,...

Recently, we were happy to share a clip of legendary filmmaker William Friedkin talking to director Nicolas Winding Refn. In the clip, it’s obvious that Friedkin suffers no fools and is not interested in wasting his time with idle chatter. So, when you see that he was brutally honest and open in a recent interview with the Guardian, it makes complete sense.

The interview came about because Friedkin is promoting his most recent film, a documentary called “The Devil and Father Amorth.” The doc has come under fire since its premiere, due to people claiming that the film might actually be a hoax.

Washington — William Friedkin returned to Washington last week to talk about his latest project — “The Devil and Father Amorth,” a documentary project that explores real-life exorcisms.

In it, Friedkin witnesses and films an exorcism in Italy in 2016, of a young Italian woman named Christina who believed that she was possessed. The experience was different from what was portrayed in Friedkin’s 1973 classic, “The Exorcist,” but he says that it was still very chilling.

“I had to consider whether or not I wanted to show this, but I ultimately felt that I had seen it and people should see it,” Friedkin tells Variety‘s “PopPolitics” on SiriusXM.

Several years ago, Friedkin was in Italy and met with Father Gabriele Amorth, then regarded as the foremost Catholic authority on exorcisms, and Amorth agreed to let him witness one and to shoot it, on the condition that it only be with a small camera and no lighting.

Updated with more numbers and analysis. New specialty releases had a fairly weak showing overall this weekend despite featuring work from high-profile filmmakers.

Leading the roster of newcomers reporting numbers Sunday was IFC Films thriller Ghost Stories, which grossed $12,646 from an exclusive New York showing, giving it a technical win for the weekend’s top per-theater average. Cinema Libre’s multi-lingual bio-romance Lou Andreas-Salomé, Audacity To Be Free placed next with a $5,000 tally from an exclusive weekend run.

The Orchard’s Venice documentary The Devil And Father Amorth by Exorcist director William Friedkin bowed in eight locations Friday, grossing $10,851. French-language Godard Mon Amour by Oscar-winning filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) played four runs in its opening frame, taking in $12,646 for Cohen Media Group.

Holdovers were paced by The Rider. Sony Classics added runs for Chloé Zhao’s critically lauded film for its second weekend, and the film took in a...

Among the many differences between William Friedkin’s newest film and his most famous, one is considerably more visceral than the rest: “The Devil and Father Amorth” probably won’t make anybody faint and/or vomit. The Academy Award–winning director has revisited “The Exorcist” 45 years later with a documentary about an actual priest who performs actual exorcisms, making a kind of companion piece to his horror classic.

“The Exorcist” was ahead of its time in many ways, not all of which were confined to the screen. Reports abounded — some confirmed, some not — of audience members having extreme physical reactions to the film. Nearly half a century later, that tradition continues in fits and starts — someone might even make a documentary about it one day.

The most recent of these is Julia Ducournau’s instantly infamous “Raw,” a cannibalistic horror offering that proved so unsettling to two attendees of the...

One question looms evocatively over the 69 minutes consuming “The Devil and Father Amorth,” Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin‘s (“The French Connection”) latest documentary about real-life exorcisms: “is this really the random invasion of an external force?” A question that has perpetuated the widening of the gap between science and religion, the Vatican’s performance of exorcisms continues to be subject to scrutiny by both non-believers and even those who proclaim belief in Christ.

Oscar nominee William Friedkin’s 1973 classic The Exorcist grossed nearly $233M stateside, spawned follow ups and imitations and is still a standard-bearer in horror. Now Friedkin is taking a look at real-life exorcisms in the documentary The Devil and Father Amorth, which The Orchard is opening Friday. Friedkin’s latest will be decidedly different from his narrative thriller, but will nevertheless be “unnerving,” according to the distributor, which will combine the film with a director’s cut of The Exorcist in key locations. The film is one of a number of mixed-genre Specialty newcomers making theatrical debuts this weekend, including Cohen Media Group’s Godard Mon Amour by writer-director Michel Hazanavicius and featuring Stacy Martin and Louis Garrel who plays the legendary director set against the backdrop of the student uprisings of 1967 France. Also opening is Vertical Entertainment’s sci-fi title Genesis as well as Passion River Films’ documentary After Auschwitz,...

William Friedkin already had a Best Director Oscar under his belt when “The Exorcist” came to theaters in 1973, but even he wasn’t quite prepared for what the film would mean for his career. “The Exorcist” was a box office smash, and long before the advent of social media, the film went viral the old-fashioned way — through word of mouth. Today, the audience reactions almost seem like a publicity stunt, but people really did faint and get sick after seeing the movie, lending many to believe the film is cursed. “The Exorcist” was terrifying, and its creepiest aspect was that it drew from real accounts.

Even 45 years later, Friedkin can’t escape the shadow of “The Exorcist,” not that he has a problem with that. When IndieWire joined the legendary director for a day in Georgetown, Washington D.C., Friedkin’s love of the city made famous by his film was more than evident,...