Production
The making of the movie was itself full of drama. John Frankenheimer was initially set to direct, but stepped down just before his death. He was replaced by Paul Schrader, but the producers were completely unsatisfied with the completed film he presented them. Schrader aimed for a psychological film, and delivered what he described as "footage without any of the bloody violence the backers had wanted."
The producers fired Schrader and replaced him with Harlin. Screenwriter Alexi Hawley was called to retool the previous script, and he cut out some characters of Paul Schrader's version and added some new ones. Harlin went back and re-filmed most of the movie, adding new characters and deleting others. The character of Father Francis, originally played by Gabriel Mann, had to be recast with D'Arcy because Mann had a scheduling conflict. A character played by Izabella Scorupco was introduced.
Though the film's plot centers around Father Merrin's exorcism of a boy in Africa many years before the events in The Exorcist, little effort was made to keep the story consistent.
The film is shot in Univisium (2:1) aspect ratio (developed by Vittorio Storaro, who also acted as the cinematographer), although the theatrical release was presented in 2.39:1.
In 2005, the Schrader version was released to theaters as Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist. The critical reaction to Schrader's version is only slightly better than Harlin's version, but Schrader's version also received high praise from William Peter Blatty (the author/screenwriter of The Exorcist).
Read more about this topic: Exorcist: The Beginning
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