Mike Flanagan, the very productive filmmaker behind “The Haunting of Hill House,” “Doctor Sleep” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” is in discussions to direct “The Exorcist” sequel for Universal and Blumhouse, a person with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap. The source emphasized it’s early in the process and a deal is far from certain, but there is interest from both sides and Flanagan has a unique approach to the material.
Universal referred TheWrap’s question to Blumhouse, who had no response.
Universal spent $400 million for the rights to the “Exorcist” franchise in 2021 and planned a trilogy of films, but director and co-writer David Gordon Green left the series after directing last year’s “The Exorcist: Believer” despite having outlined the next two films.
Flanagan is familiar with stepping into existing horror franchises and putting his own twist on things. He created 2016’s notably excellent “Ouija: Origin of Evil” prequel for Blumhouse and was able to connect the dots between Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King for 2019’s “The Shining” sequel “Doctor Sleep,” which was released by Warner Bros.
The filmmaker most recently wrote and directed the independent King adaptation “The Life of Chuck,” a drama starring Tom Hiddleston that’s in the can but hasn’t been released yet.
A potential obstacle for Flanagan entering “The Exorcist” situation is his deal with Amazon to adapt King’s extensive “The Dark Tower” as a TV series. He’s been working on the adaptation with his creative partner Trevor Macy, but a schedule for when that might move forward has yet to come together. Amazon is coming off the success of another high-profile genre adaptation in “Fallout,” so a greenlight for “The Dark Tower” seems like a no-brainer (although doing the adaptation justice won’t be cheap).
Flanagan moved his production company Intrepid Pictures’ deal to Amazon after working with Netflix on the popular “Haunting” TV series, which spanned two anthological installments. He also made the original limited series “Midnight Mass” and the Christopher Pike adaptation “The Midnight Club” at the streamer, but the latter was canceled shortly after its debut in 2022.
“The Exorcist: Believer” opened in October and earned $137 million worldwide against a budget of $30 million, but had its release date pushed back late due to the sudden arrival of Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” movie. Despite bringing back Ellen Burstyn from the original “Exorcist,” the sequel didn’t land well with critics, receiving mostly harsh reviews.
The next film, named “The Exorcist: Deceiver,” was originally set to hit theaters in April 2025, but has since been taken off Universal’s release schedule.
Deadline first reported the news of Flanagan’s involvement with “The Exorcist” franchise.
