Jamie Lee Curtis is one of the horror genre’s most popular heroines, but she is not a fan of the genre herself. During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Curtis revealed that when she was a teenager she was so frightened by a viewing of The Exorcist (watch it HERE) that her friends teased her about it – and from there, she had the thought that maybe she should get involved with the Exorcist trilogy that her Halloween 2018 (watch that HERE) and Halloween Kills (now in theatres and on the Peacock streaming service) director David Gordon Green, who she’ll be working with again on Halloween Ends, is planning to make after he wraps up his Halloween trilogy.
Curtis said,
I’m brave, but I am afraid of scary things. When I was 15, my parents (legendary actors Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis) screened The Exorcist and my friends teased me the next day because I was so freaked out. I loathe being scared by scary movies. I scare so easily. It’s the reason that I’m so good at [being in them]. It’s a natural response for me. I’ve had this awakening. Why did I end up making my mark in a genre that I loathe? I would be one of those people who would say, you couldn’t pay me to go to a horror movie. Because I hate it. [But] actually, you can pay me to be scared and you can pay me well! Maybe I should be the voice of the devil like Mercedes McCambridge. You see, if David gives me a part in the new Exorcist trilogy as the voice of the devil, then it is a full-circle return for me, in a meta way. That would blow people’s minds.”
McCambridge didn’t exactly voice the devil, little Linda Blair was possessed by a demon called Pazuzu in The Exorcist, but Curtis definitely wins points for bringing her name up like that.
When asked if Curtis has talked to him about her Exorcist aspirations, Green replied,
Ooh, she has not! I’ll have to get her to audition for that one. You know, she did the crying baby for the last Halloween movie, so she’s a talented voice actor as well.”
We’ll have to wait and see if Curtis ends up having any involvement with Green’s Exorcist movies. We do know that the first entry in his trilogy is set to star Leslie Odom Jr. and Ellen Burstyn, who will be reprising the role of Chris MacNeil from the original film. Odom will be playing a character who
tracks down Chris MacNeil after his child becomes possessed.
Universal and Peacock paid an amount somewhere in the range of $400 million to acquire the rights to distribute this new Exorcist trilogy. Coming to us from Blumhouse Productions and Morgan Creek Entertainment, the films are being produced by Jason Blum, David Robinson, and James Robinson. Green, Danny McBride, and Couper Samuelson serve as executive producers. Ryan Turek is overseeing the project for Blumhouse.
The original announcement informed us that Green crafted the story for The Exorcist 2023 with Peter Sattler (Broken Diamonds), then wrote the screenplay with Danny McBride (who has written all three of the new Halloweens with him) and their Halloween Kills co-writer Scott Teems.
Halloween Ends is scheduled to reach theatres on October 14, 2022 and Green’s The Exorcist will arrive the following year, on October 13, 2023.