As anyone who’s read “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” will tell you, William Friedkin was one of the most fascinating, frustrating figures to come out of American cinema in the 1970s. Following the spectacular one-two punch of “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist” (and, to some extent, the brilliant failure of “Sorcerer”), Friedkin’s career never quite hit the same heights again, full of TV work, and questionable B-movies like “Jade” and “Rules of Engagement,” with only the fitfully strong, albeit badly dated “To Live and Die In L.A.” retaining the promise he once held.
But things are looking up a bit for the now 75-year-old director: 2006’s “Bug” was his best film in years, and he’s reteaming with that film’s Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tracy Letts for next year’s “Killer Joe,” with Emile Hirsch, Matthew McConaughey and Thomas Haden Church among the cast. And now comes the news that Friedkin may again be working with the writer behind his best-known film, “The Exorcist.”
William Peter Blatty, who wrote both the source material and the adaptation of the horror classic, published a new novel, “Dimiter,” this year, which focuses on a legendary American covert agent in the 1970s, who escapes to Jerusalem, and takes account of his life. It supposedly marks a departure from Blatty’s roots in the horror genre, although by all accounts the writer’s religious themes are as much in evidence as ever.
In an interview with Rue Morgue Magazine (via Shock Till You Drop) in support of the Blu-Ray release of their earlier collaboration, Blatty revealed that “Billy Friedkin is eager to direct it as a film, which would be our one and only other teaming since “The Exorcist.” This isn’t quite true — Friedkin was briefly attached to direct Blatty’s novel “Legion,” which the writer eventually helmed, albeit in a version plagued with studio interference, as “The Exorcist III” — but it’s still an enticing prospect.
The two are getting on a bit, so we imagine if Friedkin doesn’t get moving on the project shortly after “Killer Joe,” it won’t happen, but we sincerely hope it does — it would mark a fitting cap to the rejuvenation of the director.
