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To the best of my knowledge – all editions of Kermode’s BFI Exorcist book focus purely on The Exorcist (1973) & the TVYNS.
There is however a chapter in “THE EXORCIST – OUT OF THE SHADOWS”. A book by Bob McCabe. Albeit brief – The Chapter on Legion does offer an interesting tale of how Friedkin WAS going to direct Legion and how Morgan Creek forced Blatty to make the ending you see in the film.
If you find anymore info Legion I’d love to know.
Thanks Father Fletcher
It would be nice in this age of remakes if Blatty was given another go at LEGION sometime.If it could be filmed exactly like the screenplay was written, then all would be right with the world.Then again, Jason Miller was integral to the story and without him, how could it be?
Fr Fletcher, thanks for your input – yes, if I find anything new on the original Legion film I’ll post it. Thanks for your helpful data on the McCabe book.
Ken, yeah, it would be nice for Blatty to have another go at Legion – or at least to somehow locate _all_ the “lost” and/or unused footage and re-stitch it into a new film. But yes, how could a new film be done without Jason Miller? He put an indelible stamp on the Karras character and who else could fill his shoes? E.g., Lonesome Dove’s Captain Call, played by Tommy Lee Jones, was the _definitive_ Call. Jon Voight later did a very creditable job with the Call character, but still it wasn’t the same as Tommy Lee Jones. Ditto for anyone playing the Karras role…
Miller wasn’t in the film originally. “LEGION 1.0” featured only Dourif, as Karras, and as the possessed Karras with the Gemini Killer within.
Even so, if Blatty could go back and finish his film, his only options in terms of strategies at successfully using Miller would be:
1. Retain or edit in “Exorcist III” footage/sound of the actor.
2. See 1, and/or partically CGI it all like they’ve done with Marlon Brando in Superman Returns.
3. Have a new actor made up to look like Miller, and get the voice right through modern technology. Couldn’t be too hard.
Just some thoughts. Man, would it be great to see LEGION 1.0 in any capacity. Apparently the film only exists on a VHS tape belonging to Blatty himself (all actual footage from both versions of his sequel to The Exorcist are history, in every sense, it’s believed), and it’s not even fully produced, but more of a rough cut.
I think we’d be lucky just to have a no-Miller version. The original version LEGION, produced before Miller was hired in order to please Morgan Creek, and surely fans. But THE EXORCIST III is a film which contradicts the original in a number of ways already, so no-Miller would have been a plus; less confusion.
M.I.K.E.
Miller wasn’t in the film originally. “LEGION 1.0” featured only Dourif, as Karras, and as the possessed Karras with the Gemini Killer within.
Even so, if Blatty could go back and finish his film, his only options in terms of strategies at successfully using Miller would be:
1. Retain or edit in “Exorcist III” footage/sound of the actor.
2. See 1, and/or partically CGI it all like they’ve done with Marlon Brando in Superman Returns.
3. Have a new actor made up to look like Miller, and get the voice right through modern technology. Couldn’t be too hard.
Just some thoughts. Man, would it be great to see LEGION 1.0 in any capacity. Apparently the film only exists on a VHS tape belonging to Blatty himself (all actual footage from both versions of his sequel to The Exorcist are history, in every sense, it’s believed), and it’s not even fully produced, but more of a rough cut.
I think we’d be lucky just to have a no-Miller version. The original version LEGION, produced before Miller was hired in order to please Morgan Creek, and surely fans. But THE EXORCIST III is a film which contradicts the original in a number of ways already, so no-Miller would have been a plus; less confusion.
M.I.K.E.
M.I.K.E. thanks for your input. I’m not sure why E-3 cntradicts the original, especially in relation to Miller’s presence. The Legion novel calls for Karras’ re-animated body and I presume Blatty’s screenplay required the same. Apparently Dourif played Karras’s last moments in the exorcism to establish that Dourif is now to be thought of as Karras. But to me, that’s far more confusing than just having Miller – who thousands recognize as Karras – come back in the Karras role.
Granted, the contradiction between Blatty’s original concept and the Legion movie is that in the original, it was only Karras’s _body_ that was required to create “the scandal”. In the original, Karras as a personality had gone on to his reward. But in the final cut of Legion, Karras is present body and soul – his soul having been captured by demons and kept prisoner in its re-animated body in order that Karras be tormented as his body commits atrocities. Still, given the contradiction, I would think that Karras is fundamentally identified thru Miller, and thus Miller is less confusing than Dourif in playing that role.
Agreed, and cinematically, Miller wouldn’t contradict it. In fact, much as I like Dourif’s performance in what became THE EXORCIST III (aka. Legion 2.0), I’d have preferred Miller from the get-go; I think everyone would. However, since Lee J. Cobb was unable to sign on (he was deceased), Blatty apparently rebooted the saga from scratch, effectively making his “true sequel” not too true to the original at all; in many ways, yes, but not in some major ones:
1.The discoverer of the language on the tape being English in reverse in THE EXORCIST was one of Karras’ colleagues, a man, not the mother of a Thomas Kintry as The Exorcist III would have you believe. Both films specifically state or show their respective discoverer. Impossible they’re the same person; hence, a major plot hole, or whatnot.
2.The official who gave Karras the permission to participate in the exorcism. Different people in both films; and in the latter, the guy dies.
3.Kinderman and Karras… best friends? ‘Nuff said.
That said, The Exorcist III is thoroughly watchable and not entirely mucked-up by Morgan Creek. But surely inferior to what could have been. For example, just as Dominion proved to be, once the “good one” was releaed and tanked allowing for Dominion to become resurrected.
M.I.K.E.
Good points, Mike. Re #1, I have a tendency to excuse it because the man who told Karras that the tapes were English in reverse could be the head of the Language Department. If that’s the case, the actual analysis could have been done by one of his underlings, e.g., Kintry’s mother, and the Language Lab head could have merely been relaying that discovery to Karras. This works for the two films as screened. Not so well for the novel in which Karras asks the Language Lab guy to do it himself, immediately.
The other two points of contradiction, however, do seem logically insurmountable.Depends on whether you’re working from the novel or from the movie. In most of the novel, the Gemini is inhabiting Karras’ re-animated body, pure and simple. Karras’ body is there, but not Karras himself. Then, toward the end, the soul of the Gemini’s dead brother has a brief appearance. He’s there trying to convince the Gemini to convince the Gemini to stop his killing spree and to “move on” in the afterlife.
but in the movie, the Gemini, Karras, and the “Master”/demon all inhabit Karras’ re-animated body. The Gemini is the dominant personality, with the “imprisoned” Karras only peeking out in rare moments when the Gemini is weak or somnolent (“Bill”… “Save your servant”). And in the exorcistic climax, the demon itself takes over and speaks to Morning and Kinderman.
So, in the film the guy in the padded cell was three personalities inside Karras’ re-animated body: Karras, the Gemini, and the demon. In the novel, the guy in the cell is not Karras, but is Karras’ body hosting the Gemini and the Gemini’s dead brother.
Does anyone know if there is a detailed treatment of the uncut Legion? Reason I ask is that the “morphing head” sequence posted recently by Capn Howdy has scenes that are not in the film, e.g., a foggy graveyard, the Gemini’s psych ward cell at the _end_ of the corridor instead of on the side, etc. What I’d really like to see is a book describing the original filming and discussing not just what was added to the film, but what was _cut_ from it. Does anyone know if Kermode talks about this in any of his books?
I must admit to being a conflicted with the film. Blatty if he had his way would no doubt have made a film that had more in common with TNC than The Exorcist, in how it delt with the subject matter of good & evil etc.
Having seen the Hi-Res version of the EIII clip I think if the studio had presured Blatty from the start to have more scares & shocks in the film instead of coming in at the end & screwing it all up the film could have been a lot better.
I feel a bit conflicted saying this because of the prequals & the negative influence the studios had on both films. However much I would like to see Blatty’s “Legion” I get the feeling it would of been a theological thriller & that just wouldn’t satisfy me as an Exorcist fan. If the studios have pressured him from the start Blatty could have made the changes in the script making the story work & more scary & then we could of ended up with another great theological horror film, which I is what The Exorcist is… i think:)
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