TylerDurden_73

BOTH EXORCIST PREQUELS LIKELY FOR DVD
Warner will release theatrical one
By Susanne Ault 9/10/2004

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SEPT. 10 | The fate of director Paul Shrader's much-debated version of the Exorcist prequel is expected to be decided by month's end--and the film could end up seeing the big screen afterall.

Production house Morgan Creek hired Shrader to direct the movie, but after the $35 million-budgeted film was delivered, Morgan Creek decided it wanted an obviously scarier film than Shrader had envisioned. The studio then brought in Renny Harlin, and his $50 million-budgeted Exorcist: The Beginning bowed in theaters on Aug. 20.

As reported by VB sister publication DVD Exclusive, Shrader's version was still being considered for release but as a DVD premiere--perhaps the most expensive DVD premiere movie ever. Those decisions are finally coming down to the wire.

"We are definitely leaning toward releasing it in some form," said Guy McElwaine, president of Morgan Creek Prods. "Paul was out here all last week, and we talked about it a lot."

Although the film could roll out directly to video, McElwaine said he is considering giving the film a limited theatrical launch first.

Harlin's Exorcist: The Beginning has grossed $31.2 million. Warner Home Video is expected to release Harlin's version, but no street date has been formally announced.

Warner, which also distributed Harlin's Exorcist in theaters, declined further comment about either film.

There was some thought to debuting Shrader's Exorcist prequel in the fourth quarter, timed to the horror-flick-friendly Halloween period.

But "I would say it's more likely to be afterward" in 2005 sometime, said McElwaine, explaining that he'd prefer to be free of both the ultra-competitive Oscar theatrical season and the holiday DVD crunch.

For his part, Shrader is optimistic that some answer will come shortly about finally delivering his film to an audience.

"To my knowledge," the filmmaker said, "the decision is this week's business" at Morgan Creek.




One can only hope....

Graftenberg

I was wondering if this has ever happened before where two versions of a film have been shot. I know that some directors have quit or been fired but I have never heard of this happening before.

Rammsteinfan

I would go see it... I didnt think Renny's version was horrible but not the best. I want to see how different Schraders version is.

Debaser

Why wouldn't they release it near Halloween? I guess executives know what they're doing I suppose.

RyoHazuki

I can't see them releasing it theatrically. What sense would that make? They payed for the first one and hated it. Then they payed a buttload for a new one, and now they are gonna drop even more money in to advertise the "crappy" old one they didnt even want to release?

Matthew Chmiel

They could advertise Shrader's version as:

"SEE THE FILM THEY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO SEE BECAUSE THEY THINK YOU'RE RETARDED."

marty888

I guess that explains why there are never any bad movies made.

In general, I'd take a Schrader movie over a Harlin movie any day - so I hope this really gets loose. I would imagine that financially it would make more sense to go straight to DVD, given the cost of theatrical prints and the heavy advertising that would be required for a full-scale multiplex invasion. Or - and this might make the most sense - do a very limited theatrical release (100 or so theaters around the country) then a very quick DVD followup.

El-Kabong

Heh - allow me to translate: "Well, the version we released crashed and burned like a zepplin coming in for a landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey - so we'll release the other version and hope that it does better!"

Oh the humanity, indeed. . . .

dhmac

Hey, they could recycle a subtitle they've used before and call it:

Exorcist: the Beginning (The Version You've Never Seen)

Dr. DVD

I hope they call it:

Exorcist: No really, this is the Beginning...honest..forgive the false start

obscurelabel

Interesting question. IMDB indicates that about 90% of the footage was re-shot, I imagine that the rest were things like establishing shots, etc., since the script was re-done. I can't think of another situation like this. The closest that I can think of, although neither resulted in two distinct versions of the film (these are off the top of my head so posters, please correct any inaccuracies):

All that Money can Buy (aka The Devil and Daniel Webster). Shooting is about a week from completion when Thomas Mitchell (playing Daniel Webster) is seriously injured shooting a horse and carriage scene and hospitalized; he will not be released for over two months. Edward Arnold is brought in to replace Mitchell and all of Mitchell's footage is re-shot (pushing the production over its shooting schedule by several weeks, going over budget, and probably insuring that the film loses money on its initial release).

Back to the Future - Eric Stoltz originally is cast as Marty McFly and shooting goes on for several weeks before the producers realize he's not what they wanted for the part. Michael J. Fox is cast and all footage is scrapped.

And of course many cases where directors have been fired in the middle of productions or producers re-cutting and adding scenes after a director turned in a film, etc. But rejecting a director's version of the film and then shooting the whole thing over, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars? Pretty incredible and perhaps unprecendented.

FinkPish

http://www.moviehole.net/news/4668.html

They were talking for a while that this was going to be a DVD only version, but it sounds like they are going to finish this version for a theatrical release eventually. Sounds interesting; has this ever been done before?

Jackskeleton

nice

Rammsteinfan

Ill go see it.

darqleo

The Exorcist : In Search For More Cash (To Recoup The Loss Of The Renny Harlin Version)

or

The Exorcist : The Version You Should Have Seen (If It Wasn't For Those Meddlin' Studio Execs!)

Serious though, great news. Didn't see the first version, I was waiting for this one.

invisiblegt

Ah, finally. When I first heard about the new "Exorcist" movie, I was very excited. Until, of course, I heard that they were dumping a (supposedly) scary, thrilling version in search of one with more gore.

So, needless to say, I'm excited.

Tyler_Durden

Good, terrific. It may not necessarily be much of an improvement, but the way Schrader was treated on this film was reprehensible. I'm glad he gets an opportunity to show his version to the public.

But in any case, the marketing is going to prove interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing how WB will sidestep the fact that they initially considered Schrader's version unworthy of release.

marty888

I'll definitely want to check this one out - after avoiding the already-released version.

Joe Molotov

I'm thinking they'll just try to pass it off as a Director's Cut and not "The Version we originally made, then trashed because we thought it was sucked, but then realized it couldn't possibly suck more than the version we ended up making". They might try to thrown a few phrases like "controversial", "uncensored", and "originally deemed to scary to be shown in theaters". Something like this, maybe...

Exorcist: The Beginning. See the uncensored, Director's Vision of the controversial horror classic, originally deemed too scary to be shown in theaters. Go back to the Beginning, for the first time!

Rival11

That's Good news. Renny's version was terrible and the worst part..........everything needed to make the movie scary as hell was there, It was all there but not excuted properly.

I'll be seeing this one in the theaters as well.

Geofferson

I wish they'd just include it on the DVD.

Dr. DVD

I too wish they would just put it on the DVD. Doing this will just make people roll their eyes.

Regardless of how good the movie might prove, nothing will change the public's perception that this is not only an attempt to milk more out of a franchise that should be long dead, but an attempt to cover a gross misfire.

Like another person said, the marketing should prove interesting. How about Excorsist: The Real Beginning...Honest..

FinkPish

I don't know if the general public was even aware of what happened behind the scenes of the movie(s). I'm wondering how the studio is going to approach the release and publicity of this one. They will obviously need to show that it is a different movie from the one that came out a few months ago, but that it is based on essentially the same script. I'm happy this is going to get a proper, finished, theatrical release, but they might have been better going straight to DVD, just to save confusing or upsetting people who don't really know what happened.

Krug

http://exmk.mkforces.net/exorcistthe...dertrailer.zip

Not much there though. Found on the Australian DVD of Renny Harlin's verision of Exorcist: The Beginning.

Courtesy of Bloody Disgusting.

FinkPish

The idea of the trailer looks very similar to the theatrical version of Harlin's. But the strange bald man/boy sitting up in his bed looks very creepy. Here's hoping this one is better than the other.