After reviving Halloween, David Gordon Green and Blumhouse set sights on Exorcist sequel

Following their success with the recent Halloween reboot, David Gordon Green and Blumhouse are being compelled to revisit another classic horror franchise. According to Variety, Green is currently in talks to direct a direct sequel to 1973's The Exorcist from Blumhouse and Morgan Creek Productions (the latter boarded the long-running series with the third movie in 1990). It's unclear whether this project is the reboot that was first reported on over the summer, but odds are good that it is.

Beyond the current director negotiations, not much else is known about the sequel, although Green's involvement would make sense. His soft reboot of Halloween revived a stagnant IP and brought in over $250 million at the global box office in 2018, prompting Universal and Blumhouse to green-light two sequels. Both follow-ups were directed and co-written by Green. Halloween Kills is scheduled to hit theaters on Oct. 15, 2021 and will be followed by Halloween Ends on Oct. 14, 2022. Kills, which has released two teasers thus far, was originally slated to open this past October, but was delayed to next year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on the novel by William Peter Blatty and directed by William Friedkin, The Exorcist was a watershed moment for the cinematic horror genre. The story of a young girl (played by Linda Blair) possessed by a demon shocked audiences the world over and even sparked famous legends about strange happenings on the film's set. Upon seeing the finished product, audiences were utterly appalled at the profanity (and copious amounts of pea soup) spewing from the lips of a minor. While rather tame by today's filmmaking standards, the '73 original is a bona fide cultural touchstone that led to numerous sequels, prequels, a TV show (which itself was a surprise sequel) on Fox, and a host of imitators.

The Exorcist also starred Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran, and Jason Miller.