Leslie Odom Jr. has teased what to expect from David Gordon Green's upcoming The Exorcist sequel. Unsurprisingly, he reckons the modern-day revisit will prove "really scary" – but he also promises the follow-up will have more emotional substance than your average horror flick.
While promoting Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery recently, the actor revealed that Green's new take on The Exorcist is four weeks into filming, and that he and the cast are "having a ball" working with the Halloween filmmaker.
"It's very exciting. I hope and believe that we’re making something, first of all, really scary and fun. But also, meaningful, and y'know, deep," he told Deadline.
Green's Exorcist, which was written by Peter Sattler and Scott Teems and is a direct continuation to the 1973 film, will see Ellen Burstyn portray Chris MacNeill once again. In the William Friedkin-helmed original, Chris enlists the help of two enigmatic priests to save her daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), who has been possessed by a mysterious entity.
The new movie – which will also star The Handmaid Tale's Ann Dowd – is expected to launch a trilogy, much like how Halloween (2018) did, and Green previously explained the benefits of using actors familiar with the work already. "For me, I love having an anchor of perspective, and so I feel like I'm dealing with, this isn't historical subject matter, but I'm dealing with historic, cinematic characters, and I've got the iconic actress that played this part fifty years ago, and she's there to ask questions," he said.
"She's there to evaluate, give me notes on the script, and she's become like my spiritual guru that I go to, which…just the way that the film affected her life, we found ways that the story we're creating affected Chris MacNeil in certain ways.
"The Exorcist is a very researched drama about fucked-up things – spirituality, religion, mental health, family," Green concluded.
While we wait for more news on The Exorcist, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies coming our way throughout the rest of 2022 and beyond.
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