Fox has started casting for its upcoming televised remake of ‘The Exorcist‘ directed by Rupert Wyatt. While I am always against remakes in general, the idea of one of the most iconic horror films of all time being redone as an ongoing series on Fox of all channels has me more than a bit worried. While it is hard to imagine that the right suspense could be handled by the network to make this work, they are at least putting their money where their mouth is by delivering some quality talent for two of the leading characters for the show. So far they’ve picked up Alfonso Herrera (‘Sense8′,’The Perfect Dictatorship’) to take on Father Tomas Ortega while Ben Daniels (‘House of Cards’,’Flesh and Bone’) will be taking on the role of Father Marcus.
The series is set to be based off the classic horror film and we’re seeing it being described as “a serialized psychological thriller following two men with very different outlooks on life working together to tackle one family’s case of demonic possession.” Just like the original film, we’ll see two men who disagree with one another and must find a way to stop pure evil from ruining an innocent child and gaining a foothold on Earth. No word as to who will be playing the possessed young girl as of yet or if they’ll even be following the story that strongly but these two actors will be the faces that have to keep viewers invested in the series.
In ‘The Exorcist’ we’ll see Herrera’s Father Tomas Ortega as “the warm, selfless, and compassionate leader of a small church” while Daniels’ counterpoint as Father Marcus is “the holy warrior who carries out the occupation of exorcism that the church no longer is willing to publicly acknowledge.” While the acting will clearly be good, the fact that the pilot is being penned by the ‘Fantastic Four’ writer Jeremy Slater and mixed with high expectations from the original film being so well put together doesn’t instill me with a lot of faith on this being a show that will get picked up let alone something that horror fans want to watch each week.
The show is just the latest to deal with exorcisms or priests dealing with the unworldly to have been announced as of late as it will also be going up against AMC’s ‘Preacher‘, Cinemax’s ‘Outcast’ by ‘The Walking Dead’ creator Robert Kirkman, and NBC’s ‘The Possession of Maggie Gill‘ which we actually have heard much about in the past couple of years. Of course, if you really want to stick with the demonic we can also throw A&E’s ‘Damien‘ into the mix as well.
What are your thoughts on a televised version of ‘The Exorcist’ on Fox as an ongoing series? Do you feel that this is a show you can get behind or do we have enough of demons coming out on television already?,
Source: Cinema Blend
