Back last year, in the depths of everyone confronting some very real life fear, a report emerged that Halloween director David Gordon Green had set his sights on following up another classic horror, The Exorcist. Now, according to The New York Times, Universal has hatched a hefty deal for the filmmaker to craft not one but three new movies, with Ellen Burstyn returning to the role of Chris MacNeil, and Leslie Odom Jr. joining her as a new character.
Burstyn, of course, famously played the harried mother of Linda Blair's Regan, who was possessed by a demon and required the help of priests Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) and Father Karras (Jason Miller) to try and free her from its evil clutches. William Friedkin's 1973 chiller, adapted by William Peter Blatty from his novel, still routinely tops Best Horror Movie lists.
The Times report has Universal splashing out close to $400 million for the new set of three movies, which will adopt a similar approach to Green's 2018 Halloween (and its two sequels) by eschewing the reboot route and picking up the story in the present day. Odom Jr. will be a father whose own child is possessed and who seeks MacNeil's help. With the Blumhouse team producing again, Green is on to write and direct the films, though we'd be shocked if his Halloween collaborators Danny McBride and Scott Teems weren't also involved.
Apparently, the first of the three films may arrive in cinemas in 2023 and the others will follow either a similar release pattern or head to Universal's streaming service, Peacock. As for Green's Halloween movies, Halloween Kills will be out on 15 October, with Halloween Ends headed our way next year.