David Gordon Green In Talks To Direct An 'Exorcist' Sequel For Blumhouse

David Gordon Green, the filmmaker who rebooted the Halloween franchise with 2018's legacy sequel Halloween, is turning his attention to another classic horror property.

A new report says that Green is in talks to direct a sequel to director William Friedkin's 1973 classic The Exorcist for Morgan Creek and Blumhouse. Here's what we know so far.

/Film had previously heard the same rumblings about a David Gordon Green Exorcist movie, but we were unable to get a second source to confirm the information. Observer managed to lock down the story, though, and now the site reports that Jason Blum, David Robinson, and James Robinson will serve as producers on the new film. Blumhouse, of course, is the company behind 2018's Halloween, which relaunched that franchise and sparked two more upcoming sequels, next year's Halloween Kills and 2022's Halloween Ends.

There's no word yet about when David Gordon Green will get rolling on this sequel, or what exactly it might entail. Will it address the events of the sequel films, or pretend like they never happened? That remains a mystery, too. Most of the primary actors who appeared in the original movie have passed away, but Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair, who played the worried mother and possessed daughter at the center of the first story, are still working, so perhaps Green intends to bring them back into the action in the same way he incorporated Jamie Lee Curtis into the latest Halloween tale. I'm just speculating here, but I wonder if the demonic entity known as Pazuzu could return to torment the same family all these years later, or if the family might be called into a new possession situation as experts who have dealt with this scenario before.

Earlier this summer, word came out that Morgan Creek, the brand's rights holder, was developing an Exorcist reboot intended for theatrical release in 2021. Morgan Creek promised five years ago that they would never attempt to remake the movie, but they made no such promise about the possibility of continuing the story in a new film. In 2017, Morgan Creek Entertainment Group expressed a desire for the original creators of their library's titles to bestow their blessings upon any new versions or continuations of classic properties, but according to Observer, William Friedkin will not be involved with this new project. At this point, it is unclear if Friedkin gave this new sequel his blessing and decided not to be involved, or if he wasn't consulted at all.

Here is the trailer for Friedkin's 1973 film: