The Power Of "Whaaa?" Compels You

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On Tuesday when I bitched about the dreckitude that was The Devil Inside I mentioned the fact (and it is a fact) that nobody can make a good exorcism movie anymore. I did not expect this to be the world's response to my bitching:

Martha Marcy May Marlene Director Preps Exorcist for TV

What an excellent day for an exorcism! Nearly 40 years after The Exorcist became the first horror movie ever to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, Hollywood has again become possessed with William Peter Blatty’s best seller.

Sean Durkin, the writer-director of last year’s excellent but criminally underseen Elizabeth Olsen thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene, is adapting the fiendish classic into a ten-episode television series, this time backed by Morgan Creek and produced by Roy Lee, the executive producer of films like The Departed and The Ring.

Unlike the iconic 1973 film, Durkin’s version of The Exorcist follows the events leading up to a demonic possession and especially the after-effects of how a family copes with it...

The Exorcist TV series won't be formally shopped to networks for another two weeks, but executives are already calling seeking meetings to inquire about landing the Durkin update."

Good luck casting another Ellen Burstyn, dude! Or even a Linda Blair. Or even a Kitty Winn. (Kitty Winn really doesn't get enough love.)

In all seriousness, I loved Martha Marcy May Marlene - it was my fifth favorite movie of last year - and Durkin knows how to saturate seemingly banal moments with an absolute dread, so he's theoretically well suited to this sort of thing. Theoretically, I said. Theoretically.
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