Exclusives
‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ Sequel in Early Development! [Exclusive]
Academy Award winner Russell Crowe plays real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist, the brand new horror movie from director Julius Avery (Overlord). The Screen Gems horror movie has thus far scared up $52 million worldwide, and Bloody Disgusting can exclusively report that a sequel to The Pope’s Exorcist is now in early development.
Bloody Disgusting’s sources indicate that development is underway on The Pope’s Exorcist 2, but we don’t have any further details at this time. We do expect Crowe to return.
Stay tuned for more as we learn it.
The smart thing about The Pope’s Exorcist is that the production budget was quite low, reportedly just $18 million. This set the horror movie up for success, allowing it to become profitable in theaters after just one week of release. The same can’t be said about Universal’s Renfield, which reportedly cost $65 million and has thus far made just $17.9 million.
Screen Gems may very well have a hit franchise on their hands with The Pope’s Exorcist, and there’s certainly no shortage of tales that can be pulled from Father Gabriele Amorth’s legendary career as a high profile exorcist. The Italian priest is reported to have performed over 100,000 exorcisms for the Vatican, so needless to say the sky is the limit here.
In The Pope’s Exorcist, “Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s leading exorcist, investigates the possession of a child and uncovers a conspiracy the Vatican has tried to keep secret.”
Franco Nero (Django, John Wick: Chapter 2) stars as the titular pope. Laurel Marsden (Ms. Marvel), Cornell S. John (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald), Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Alex Essoe (Doctor Sleep) and Daniel Zovatto (It Follows) also star. Ralph Ineson (The Witch, The Green Knight) voices the film’s demon.
From Sony’s Screen Gems, The Pope’s Exorcist is based on real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, “the legendary Italian priest who performed over 100,000 exorcisms for the Vatican.”
Evan Spiliotopoulos wrote the current draft with revisions by Chuck MacLean, based on Michael Petroni-revised original drafts by Chester Hastings and R. Dean McCreary.
Doug Belgrad of 2.0 Entertainment produced along with Michael Patrick Kaczmarek of Jesus & Mary, Jeff Katz of Worldwide Katz, and Loyola Productions’ Eddie Siebert.
The Exorcist director William Friedkin told Father Gabriele Amorth’s story in the recent documentary The Devil and Father Amorth, which you can find on various VOD outlets.
Father Gabriele Amorth passed away back in 2016 at the age of 91.
Exclusives
‘Family Dinner’ Director Peter Hengl Returns With Gothic Short ‘The Fated Hour’ [Exclusive]
Family Dinner filmmaker Peter Hengl is back with “The Fated Hour“, a nightmarish Gothic short film executive produced by Kier-La Janisse (Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror), and we have the exclusive first look.
“The Fated Hour” will begin its festival run this summer, with Severin Films handling the film’s North American release.
The synopsis: “Austria, 1810. Three days before her wedding, Florentine visits the grave of her younger sister Seraphine — brilliant, otherworldly, and gone too soon. As the ceremony approaches, Florentine finds herself unable to share in her bridegroom Bruno’s joy. Over dinner, she recounts to him the strange and melancholy story of Seraphine’s life and death — and of the dark legacy she left behind. Soon it becomes clear that Florentine is not merely mourning her sister…“
Alina Schaller (Breaking the Ice), Fanny Altenburger (Counterpart), Cornelius Obonya, and Daniel Holzberg (The Zone of Interest) star.
The short is a 19th-century period piece set in Austria based on Friedrich Laun’s short story “The Relationship with the Spirit World,” famously cited as a key influence on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Shot on location in Austria, the film is produced by Hengl and Lola Basara of Vienna-based Capra Film with support from Stadt Wien Kultur (MA7) and the Lower Austrian Film Commission.
“The Fated Hour” was commissioned by Kier-La Janisse with Severin’s founders, David Gregory and Carl Daft, as Executive Producers.
“I’m very excited to have Peter Hengl’s Austrian ghost story joining our growing family of original gothic shorts,” said Janisse. “Especially with all the incredible heritage locations and rich period detail.“
Hengl added: “The oldest gothic dread is always the most modern: that fate cannot be outrun. I was fortunate to explore this timeless story alongside performers who understood completely that the past and the present are never truly separate—that some things bleed through. For the production, we used analog distortions like various lenses and mirrors not just to evoke a retro vibe, but also to represent the spirit world in the film.“
Check out the first images below, and be sure to watch Family Dinner on Screambox while we wait for “The Fated Hour”.
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