David Gordon Green has had an odd career. He started as an indie king, improbably moved into stoner studio comedies (sometimes with action), and has added Danny McBride comedies and horror revivals to his arsenal. He started by rebooting Halloween into a new trilogy, and he’s now in the midst of doing the same to The Exorcist. He’s a busy guy, which is why isn’t so sure that he’ll be personally directing the other two in the latter franchise.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter (in a bit teased out by The AV Club), Green was hesitant to confirm whether or not he’ll be directing The Exorcist: Deceiver, the first sequel to the just-released The Exorcist: Believer. One reason: He’s still got to work on HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones, on which he’s an executive producer.
“My intention is just to start making things, and as those plans come together, if I find myself in that [The Exorcist: Deceiver] director’s chair, I’d be thrilled,” Green admitted. “But right now, I’m navigating it from a story perspective and looking at my realities of life as I pivot.”
Green added that “one of the things that’s been really great between these horror franchises is doing that comedy series on HBO, The Righteous Gemstones. So it’s fun to be able to step away, take a deep breath, have a big laugh, and then get back to work in the genre.”
Mind you, that doesn’t mean Green is stepping away from those Exorcist movies. He’s still very hands-on in laying out this new trilogy. Speaking with Uproxx recently, he said they have a “roadmap” about how the overall story will progress. He also compared it to how he and his writers, including McBride, worked on the Halloweens, saying with first one “was two-thirds of our first script. And then the success of that gave us permission to just make the second one just anarchy and go ballistic. In this one, we have a roadmap of where we go with two and three, but nothing sacred, nothing confirmed. Wherever you go, there are problems.”
The Exorcist: Believer is now in theaters.
(Via THR and The AV Club)