CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
- This topic has 30 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 8 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
lunoso, thanks for the Thompson photo… he kind of looks like how I always imagined Dennings looked like.
And Shirley’s friend, the British director J. Lee Thompson, was the model for Burke Dennings, who had a habit of shredding his scripts and eating them (like Thompson had, according to Shirley)
I also read on Shirley’s book that she and Blatty used to have séances with the kids in the neighborhood at her big house in Encino, which was where he told her the idea for The Exorcist was born.
It’s Shirley’s book ‘Dance While You can’. Blatty mentions more about it in his book, ‘Exorcist: From Novel to Film’
In that book, he wrote that the novel still haunts Sachi, for various columnists, hearing that Shirley was the model for Chris, have published that Sachi was “ill” at the time, and that the novel is her story.
He writes more about the rumors of whether or not Sachi was the girl in the original cover for The Exorcist novel. The blurred photo representing Regan.
Shirley was always convinced that Blatty broke into her house and took a picture of Sachi for the cover without her permission, but he denies it. 😉
I’m constantly amazed at just how _much_ WPB lifted from real people in drawing his Exorcist characters, from Shirley and Sachi to the film director who became Burke Dennings..
“from Shirley and Sachi to the film director who became Burke Dennings..”
And Swiss Willie and Karl were based on the French couple who worked for Shirley lol. She mentioned it in her book too.
From Peter Travers book:
*The effect of the novel and film on Shirley & Sachi*
Blatty: I based Chris Macneil…on Shirley MacLaine, who is a friend of mine. I should add that Shirley has never been involved, nor has anyone in her family been involved, in anything like demonic possession. Her daughter has had to suffer a bit because the story has been distorted so often.”
Shirley: The film and Mr. Blatty’s lack of clarification have had a horrendous effect on my daughter Sachi, who some people believe is actually possessed. I’ve already had to take Sachi out of one school because her classmates thought she was possessed by the devil. Naturally, it’s sheer insanity to let a child see this film… It’s quite possible they might never recover from the shock for the rest of their lives. Since the film, numerous people have come up to me and told me they’d pray that my little girl would recover!”
Is there any official word on who that actually IS on the cover, and why Blatty chose that of all images?
According to Blatty it was designed and photographed by Harper and Rows in-house graphics department.
Blatty had no say in it, neither does he know who it was.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.