UGC cinemas are celebrating 100 years of Warner Bros, showing the studio’s greatest films. The horror classic “The Exorcist” by William Friedkin is one of them.
cursed shooting
No less than 9 deaths occurred during the filming of The Exorcist, earning it the reputation of being a cursed film. Among them, Jack McGowran, the interpreter of Burke Dennings, died a few days after the release of the feature film, as did the grandfather of Linda Blair, a night watchman and an expert in special effects.
Add to that a fire that halted production for six weeks. According to director William Friedkin, over a filming period of more than a year, it is inevitable that people will be injured or die…
A saga in several episodes
Born from the novel by William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist saga includes several opuses directed by a different filmmaker each time: The Exorcist (1973) by William Friedkin, The Exorcist 2: The Heretic (1977) by John Boorman, The Exorcist III (1990) by William Peter Blatty and The Exorcist: In the Beginning (2004) by Renny Harlin. On the television side, a series The Exorcist, which follows the first film, was launched in 2016.
At the end of 2020, it was announced that The Exorcist by Friedkin would be entitled to a new sequel. It was David Gordon Green (to whom we owe the very recommendable Halloween trilogy) who was in charge of restarting the franchise, all produced by Blumhouse, the company of the prolific Jason Blum. The feature, which will be released on October 11, sees Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair reprise their character from Chris and Regan MacNeil.
DR Linda Blair
Beautiful people…
Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino were among the contenders for the role of Father Karras, but it was ultimately Jason Miller who was cast. For the role of Father Merrin, the studio wanted Marlon Brando. William Friedkin fiercely opposed it. The reason ? The aura of the actor was so strong that he would have taken over everything else, which the filmmaker feared.
Linda Blair threatened with death
After the release of the film, Linda Blair, the interpreter of little Regan MacNeil, received numerous death threats, mostly from religious groups convinced that The Exorcist was intended to glorify Satan.
Fearing for the girl’s safety, Warner then had no choice but to put her under the protection of bodyguards 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 6 months. But the threats continued for years.
An extremely lucrative film
While it is undeniably one of the most famous horror films of all time, The Exorcist was also an extraordinary commercial success, grossing close to $400 million worldwide via its release in theaters (and this for a relatively low budget of 12 million).
The other three opuses did much less well. The Exorcist 2 grossed $25 million for a production cost of $14 million and The Exorcist 3 also $25 million for $11 million. The Exorcist: In the Beginning was made for 50 million and generated 78.
UGC
WARNER AT UGC
From June 7 to August 29, UGC cinemas are celebrating 100 years of Warner Bros with an exceptional program of 100 studio masterpieces in 20 UGC cinemas throughout France, all summer long, at the price of €8.5 the place.
All the programming on ugc.fr
UGC Ciné Cité les Halles: 1 film per day, i.e. 84 films during the summer and various events and entertainment to accompany this anniversary program
UCG Ciné Cité Bercy: exceptional retrospectives around franchises and filmmakers (The Lord of the Rings, Christopher Nolan, DC universe, etc.)
Dedicated programming in 18 cinemas across France on Saturday and Sunday evenings:
UGC Ciné Cité Vélizy, UGC Ciné Cité Créteil, UGC Ciné Cité Cergy, UGC Issy les Moulineaux, UGC Ciné Cité La Défense, UGC Ciné Cité SQY Ouest, UGC Ciné Cité Rosny, UGC Ciné Cité Parly, UGC Ciné Cité Noisy-le-Grand , UGC Ciné Cité Part-Dieu (Lyon), UGC Ciné Cité Internationale (Lyon), UGC Ciné Cité Atlantis (Nantes), UGC Ciné Cité Bordeaux, UGC Ciné Cité Bassins à flot (Bordeaux), UGC Talence (Bordeaux), UGC Ciné Cité Lille, UGC Ciné Cité Strasbourg, UGC Nancy.