June 07, 2005
Exorcist author sues for second prequel
This is quite either quite bizarre or clever, money grabbing or just astute, it really depends on your point of view. William Peter Blatty, the author of the original The Exorcist is suing Morgan Creek for payment for an Exorcist sequel, despite already being paid. How could this be, well he's been paid for Exorcist: The Beginning and is now filing for the payment against Dominion: A prequel to The Exorcist. From IMDB:
According to trade paper Hollywood Reporter, Blatty filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, claiming Morgan Creek Production guaranteed him a fee if they made a second sequel to the original 1973 horror classic. Blatty states he was paid $930,000 for the first sequel - Exorcist: The Beginning - last year, which stemmed back from an October 1996 agreement. Blatty alleges he hasn't received any money regarding Dominion, which hit cinemas last month.
He's supposedly suing for around $750,000. To be fair you really need to know what the agreement was and exactly why he's suing, because just going by this story alone it sounds like he's trying to pull a bit of a fast one since there was supposed to be only on prequel and this was never going to be released. However, it has been, so effectively they have made two movies, doesn't he deserve the two payments?
Posted by at June 7, 2005 02:52 PM
Comments
Posted by: T-Jax at June 8, 2005 03:40 AM
Yeah, I suppose the man should be paid. It's not as if these companies are short of a bob or two. But there is something else that worries me...
Exorcist: The Beginning is the allegedly useless Renny Harlin prequel, right? Whereas Dominion is the original prequel made by Paul Schrader, before the production company threw a wobbly and brought Harlin on board. And everyone seems to think that Dominion is the superior film, which Morgan Creek has only recently agreed to release...
So the question is: will this legal action persaude Morgan Creek to pull the release of Schrader's better film? I really hope not, because I've been aching to watch both films... I think it'll give a real insight into the way different directors handle what is essentially the same source material. It's not often you get to see that (except with remakes; but they're often separated by time and advances in technique, so they're not a like-for-like comparison).
Posted by: JohnW at June 8, 2005 03:59 AM
JohnW wrote:
"...will this legal action persuade Morgan Creek to pull the release of Schrader's better film?"
As far as I know, Dominion was already released, on May 20, 2005.
Posted by: T-Jax at June 8, 2005 05:26 AM
They've released it in some places on May 20. But it's not had a cinematic release in other territories (like the UK). And it's not yet been issued on DVD anywhere. My point is: could these be in jeopardy? Sorry if I wasn't clear.
Posted by: JohnW at June 8, 2005 05:55 AM
I guess he should be paid for both. But it seems he's asking for more money than Dominion even made. According to http://boxofficemojo.com, Dominion made only $246,708.