SONY PICTURES Have Picked Up the Television Rights to The Exorcist Miniseries

The news comes via The Exorcist author, screenwriter and producer himself, William Peter Blatty, in speaking with Ryan at TheNinthConfiguration.com.

*Hollywood trades are not reporting this news yet. No other details are known.

Blatty has famously written a teleplay for The Exorcist and past attempts at bringing his characters to TV without his involvement did not have his blessing (and were seemingly squashed as a result), so I ASSUME: Sony Pictures have the television rights to produce Blatty’s teleplay of The Exorcist.

(UPDATE: Blatty confirms that, yes, it was his teleplay Sony Pictures picked up, and the television rights have been officially purchased.)

This new version has been with Blatty him for some time– in 2009 he announced the teleplay was written and William Friedkin had expressed an interest in directing. That is no longer the case.

The Exorcist motion picture is widely praised for being one of the few examples of a film being just as good as the book. Still, Blatty maintains he’s always wanted to bring more of his novel to the screen and a miniseries run-time would allow for this.

Interestingly, Blatty’s first draft of The Exorcist screenplay was much lengthier before director William Friedkin trimmed it back to the concise film we know and love today (as confirmed by both men in The Fear of God documentary).

Sony Pictures have dealt with the exorcism theme before, having released box office hit The Exorcism of Emily Rose in 2005. They are behind current television shows Better Call Saul and Justified, to name just a couple.

More on this news at captainhowdy.com as it continues to unfold.