Many thanks to Jeffrey Overstreet for linking to the brand new trailer for The Exorcism of Emily Rose, an upcoming film, based on the true story of Anneliese Michel, about a priest who is tried in court for the death of a woman he tried to exorcise.
The true story took place in Bavaria, but the film will probably take place in the United States; any resemblance to recent events in Romania is, presumably, purely coincidental.
The film is directed by Scott Derrickson from a script he co-wrote with Paul Harris Boardman; the two also collaborated on the screenplays for Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000) and Hellraiser: Inferno (2000), the latter of which Derrickson also directed. Derrickson also contributed to the writing of Wim Wenders’ recent film Land of Plenty (2004), and it is said that a certain biblical story element in Wes Craven’s Dracula 2000 (2000) was put there by Derrickson when he gave the script an uncredited polish.
Did I mention a certain biblical element? Yes, Derrickson, for all his love of horror films, is a Christian; I met him when he and I both spoke at Regent College‘s ‘Through a Lens Darkly: The Sequel‘ conference in 2003, and I believe the first thing he said to me was to thank me for using a clip from Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1952) in my presentation; that, he said, is his favorite film of all time.
We didn’t chat anywhere near as much as I would have liked, so I was excited when I heard that (1) he was directing a new movie about a real-life exorcism, and (2) he was shooting the film in Vancouver. I tried to get an interview with him while the production was in town last fall, but alas, penetrating the publicity department’s bureaucracy proved impossible. However, the film is coming out in just a couple months, and I’m hoping I can claim a bit of the time he’ll be allotting to promoting the film.
Interesting, BTW, to see The Mothman Prophecies‘ Laura Linney in yet another movie based on a real-life supernatural story.
And since this film will be compared to The Exorcist (1973), I may as well link to my last post on that movie and its sequels.
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