By In a surprising new report, The Insneider has revealed that celebrated “The Haunting of Hill House,” “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” “Midnight Mass” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” creator/director Mike Flanagan is in talks to direct the next “The Exorcist” film at Blumhouse and Universal Pictures.
Universal famously snagged the rights to the franchise for $400 million in June 2021 with the intent being to proceed with a new trilogy of “The Exorcist” films like they did with “Halloween” in 2018 – even enlisting that trilogy’s director David Gordon Green to helm at least the first film “The Exorcist: Believer” which released last year.
That film, which serves as a direct sequel to the original William Friedkin classic and ignored the sequels, was at least profitable – making $137 million from a $30 million budget. However it was poorly received by critics and audiences with no real interest in any more.
The sequel had already set a date for April 2025 but Green exited and earlier this year Blumhouse chief Jason Blum indicated they were “definitely going to make another Exorcist movie” but were reconceiving their plans.
The solution appears to be to bring in Flanagan, who has had great success with genre work and horror sequels such as the well-received “Doctor Sleep” (a sequel to “The Shining”) and “Ouija: Origin of Evil” which was widely considered to be leaps and bounds better than its predecessor.
On top of that, sources in the report indicate that rather than have Flanagan direct two “lame-duck sequels” to ‘Believer’, he’s reportedly going to be “doing his own thing with the franchise” which sounds promising.
Flanagan most recently wrapped his eighth film “The Life of Chuck” based on the novella by Stephen King. Other past films include “Hush,” “Gerald’s Game,” and “Oculus”. He’s also developing the multi film and TV adaptation of King’s “The Dark Tower” saga.
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