Tales of cursed units aren’t briefly provide in Hollywood, nevertheless it wasn’t inexplicably tragic deaths that plagued The Exorcism. According to director Joshua John Miller and co-writer M.A. Fortin, the duo behind The Final Girls script, their set confronted a variety of challenges — non secular trauma, COVID, a hearth in Australia, and “crazy stuff happened that just kept happening” — that just about led its director to surrender. What ended up saving the manufacturing of this Russell Crowe-led horror, nevertheless, is sort of stranger than fiction.

While non secular horror movies will not be new (The Exorcism now joins the 2024 roster alongside Immaculate and The First Omen and Late Night With the Devil), Miller and Fortin’s tackle the style is a singular perspective from its genesis. For starters, the meta movie-within-a-movie side was championed by Scream creator Kevin Williamson, who serves as a producer for the movie. On prime of that, Miller tells Collider’s Steve Weintraub, “My responsibility as a filmmaker is to be an archivist,” referring to his love letter to his mom, Susan Bernard (Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!), who was “a scream queen herself,” with The Final Girls. As it seems, The Exorcism can also be a nod to his father, Jason Miller, an actor finest identified for portraying Father Karras in The Exorcist.

During the Q&A, Miller and Fortin focus on the hurdles they overcame all through manufacturing, from casting to submit. They speak about preventing for the lesbian couple on the middle of the film, performed by Ryan Simpkins and Chloe Bailey (you may by no means guess what sort of backward word they acquired on that), what it was like pitching the film to Russell Crowe, his involvement within the casting course of, and why Miller practically gave up on the entire thing. They additionally reveal how a name from Quentin Tarantino saved The Exorcism and what’s up subsequent for them, together with a particular Marilyn Monroe undertaking.

You can watch the complete Q&A within the video above or learn the transcript under.

The Exorcism (2024)

A troubled actor begins to exhibit a disruptive conduct whereas capturing a horror movie. His estranged daughter wonders if he is slipping again into his previous addictions or if there’s one thing extra sinister at play.

Release Date

June 7, 2024

Director

Joshua John Miller , M.A. Fortin

Runtime

93 Minutes

Writers

Joshua John Miller , M.A. Fortin

Studio(s)

MiraMax , Outerbanks Entertainment

Expand

COLLIDER: You’ve acted earlier than, and I consider your first position was on The Greatest American Hero.

JOSHUA JOHN MILLER: [Laughs] Yeah, it was. A person opened my shirt and needed to warmth me up along with his arms to save lots of my life as a result of I used to be dying of hypothermia. I do not bear in mind something apart from this man touching my chest. It could clarify issues. I don’t know.

You additionally did an episode of Family Ties and Highway to Heaven.

MILLER: Yeah. When you are a child actor, it is like, does everybody need to bear in mind every little thing about their childhood, and does the entire world get to see it? But I feel the best factor about that have on Highway to Heaven was working with Michael Landon. That man was a mensch and an artist. If you wanna find out about learn how to work a crew, you examine how he handled these individuals and labored with the crews for many years from one sequence to the subsequent. It was actually one thing.

Talk a bit of bit in regards to the genesis of how this all occurred, the place all of it got here collectively.

M.A. FORTIN: It originated from a dialog with Kevin Williamson the place Josh and Kevin have been discussing. Kevin was a champion of the primary film we made with director Todd Strauss- Schulson, who’s in the home someplace, known as The Final Girls. Kevin actually wished to nudge us into discovering a distinct type of meta means into one thing, and he introduced up exorcism films. At first, we have been like, “Blah, no,” as a result of general, aside from the massive daddy — The Exorcist — we have been type of like, “Well, I don’t know, they’re so kind of, to overuse a word, patriarchal and kind of Catholic propaganda. We were like, “Eh, maybe.” Then the extra we mentioned it, the extra we have been like, “Well…”

MILLER: I feel what actually acquired us excited was, would not or not it’s attention-grabbing to cease all the time seeing ladies being possessed and males having to save lots of ladies? How about if a person’s possessed and he must be saved by two lesbians?

FORTIN: Because after we conceived of the concept in 2019, each time we regarded out the window –– exorcism films traditionally are all the time about ladies being these vectors of affect, and they will be taken over by malevolent forces and an enormous sturdy man wants to save lots of them — we have been like, “I don’t know, men seem to be having a lot of trouble right now.” Even typically individuals we knew, typically prolonged household, we’d see people who we thought we knew that have been all of the sudden behaving in methods like they’d been, I do not know, taken over. Suddenly it felt like the concept possibly held water.

MILLER: This has been an elongated course of getting this to the display screen for numerous causes, and I feel there’s additionally a bit of little bit of the primary TV present that we created, Queen of the South. It was a kind of conditions the place it was a really powerful expertise, and I feel that was positively an inspiration for the challenges of making an attempt to convey one thing to life. That entire expertise was powerful. I feel there have been plenty of demons concerned in making an attempt to make that undertaking come to life and having to slay plenty of demons. So, I feel a few of that was positively a means that we wished to kind of purge, in a inventive means, what our private expertise was as a result of Mark and I are additionally companions in life, not solely simply as writers. It was a purging of kinds, the genesis of it.

I’m all the time curious how issues change from inception to what individuals see on display screen. What have been a few of the huge adjustments that got here alongside the way in which, or was what individuals watched tonight very near what you guys got here up with?

There’s plenty of filmmakers in the home tonight. I feel we’d all agree that, “Is it ever really the same from the beginning, the inception, to the end?” I do not know. At least in my very own expertise, I really feel that it transforms and reveals you what it desires to be. My writing instructor all the time says you’ll be able to’t dictate to the web page, the web page will dictate to you, and also you comply with that, and you retain that an natural course of. So, I feel that was the way in which with this movie, besides, as you recognize, making films is so collaborative, and you’ve got a studio system like Miramax that has very explicit infrastructure of what sort of film they anticipate. It was typically a problem to battle on your imaginative and prescient and what you need. It’s all the time the case the place someway individuals all of the sudden understand they do not wanna make the identical film after you have already shot it.

I’ve by no means heard that. That is loopy. [Laughs]

FORTIN: First time ever.

MILLER: I’ve an incredible buddy, a DJ, and everybody is aware of what an incredible advocate he’s for administrators. He says, “If you can just have that first meeting where you really clarify what you wanna do with everybody and just be specific so that everybody knows so that you can avoid that future volcanic experience that happens.” It’s a great lesson. And [don’t] be afraid to stroll away if it isn’t.

What do you suppose would shock followers to be taught in regards to the making of the movie?

FORTIN: David Hyde Pierce guidelines. He shouldn’t be solely the nicest man however a consummate skilled and expertise for eons. In making ready to play the position of an 80-year-old, he wore weights on his ankles daily. He discovered a church in Wilmington the place he would go follow enjoying the organ. The man is methodology. But you recognize what else it’s? We did not find out about a variety of these items till later, and he is like, “Oh, yeah, it’s just something I do.” I used to be like, “Oh, you don’t make a show of it.” He was like, “No, no.”

MILLER: David, I’d agree, is extraordinary. What individuals could discover attention-grabbing, that I feel was an expertise for many people, is there are some fairly darkish themes on this and a few heavy stuff about trauma and childhood trauma and the Catholic church, and I feel a gaggle of us who have been producers and actors and writers on the entire undertaking, we’re all a bunch of actually damage guys who’ve gone by means of so much. We all went to struggle collectively emotionally, so it was a way more difficult expertise being within the course of of constructing this than we anticipated. I feel it was simply because we’re all, like, in all probability closely triggered continually. Movies are onerous sufficient to make, however I feel there was plenty of emotional angst for everyone.

Do Lesbians Really Exist If “the Sex Isn’t As Explicit as ‘Euphoria’?”

“I guess we had a bone to pick.”

I’m fascinated by the modifying course of. Talk a bit of bit in regards to the meeting lower versus what individuals see. What was it like within the modifying room placing this collectively as a result of it is in the end the ultimate rewrite?

MILLER: That’s true. I positively agree with that. It’s like I used to be saying earlier, it does continually change, and plenty of the adjustments have been the battles to battle for issues. One of the issues that was actually a wrestle was, at one level, there have been sure notes that we got, corresponding to, “Why do we need the queer storyline between the girls if the sex isn’t as explicit as Euphoria?”

Wow.

MILLER: We’re like, “Wow, that’s really misogynistic in 2023/24.” We’re like, “No, it’s not about that. We’re gonna keep this queer storyline, and we’re gonna keep this relationship between the two women.” We actually fought for that factor of the movie to stay, in addition to different huge thematic points.

FORTIN: Faith is an monumental side of so many individuals’s lives, and it may present a lot consolation, and it may be such a grounding pressure of their lives. At the identical time, rising up homosexual within the ‘80s, it was not an superior time to have the non secular proper in your tv. I assume we had a bone to choose. So, having Lee and Blake be queer and, basically, quote-unquote a part of God’s plan and never have that excised, that was, for us, a serious hill to die on.

Did you find yourself with plenty of deleted scenes?

MILLER: Oh, for positive. One day, possibly, within the director’s lower. Also, Russell Crowe is without doubt one of the most intimidating individuals I’ve ever met in my life, and I do not get intimidated. I grew up in Hollywood. I’ve been round well-known individuals and met them, or they’ve been in my household, and holy moly… The first day he confirmed up on set, he rode up on a motorcycle — not a bike. He was biking, smoking a cigarette, dismounted his bike, and walked slowly in direction of me like he was in sluggish movement. He strikes like his persona and Gladiator and his films. That’s simply how he enters a room, how he leaves.

FORTIN: He sat down, and it was just like the power was like, “What’s all this then?”

MILLER: [Laughs] These are precisely his first phrases, mainly. What’s wonderful about him, although, is that as a result of he brings that formidable presence, he challenges you to all the time continually be your finest and he desires you to concentrate to every particular element. After each take, he is like, “Did you get that?” I’d say, “Yeah, pretty much.” He’s like, “No, no, no. What do you mean?” “Well, there’s this one light that was a little off.” He’s like, “No, no, no, every detail counts. It’s the most important. Just tell them you need another take,” which, in fact, producers do not need to hear. That was an sudden expertise with him. It’s as a result of he loves movie, interval, and he is actually obsessed with it.

Russell Crowe Championed for Ryan Simpkins

How did you get him within the film? What was it like pitching? Did you ship him the script?

FORTIN: [Laughs] It type of occurred, not accidentally, however he was despatched the script, after which unexpectedly, it was like, “Oh, Russell wants to have a conversation.” We have been like, “What?” I bear in mind the primary convention name, we have been in an workplace with Kevin, and there was simply silence on the telephone, and we simply hear lastly, “Hello.” The dialog went nicely, clearly. At one level, he basically stated one thing alongside the strains of, “Oh, this is unusual for me because usually, in movies, I like to drive the bus.” We muted it, and I used to be like, “How do we explain that in a possession movie, you are the bus?”

One of the issues about Russell is that I’d think about he attracts different individuals who need to work with him, so as soon as he acquired concerned, that unexpectedly opened the door to so many different individuals.

MILLER: He did not even say sure but. He wished us to go go to him on his farm in Australia two weeks earlier than the film began, which was like 5 airplanes. I do not prefer to fly, and it was like 5 totally different flights.

FORTIN: I feel it was, like, 30 hours.

MILLER: A 30-hour journey to get to some rural farm. I did not know what was gonna occur at that farm. I used to be like, “Where are we going? What’s gonna happen to us? He’s kinda hot. Okay, let me see.” I used to be scared.

So how did that open the door, or did you have already got everybody else?

MILLER: He was very collaborative. He simply wished to be a part of the method of selecting everyone of the actors that we have been for all the opposite roles. He was additive within the sense that, clearly, he attracts plenty of gifted individuals to wanna work with him, in order that was a given. But we additionally wished to incorporate him within the casting course of.

FORTIN: He was an enormous champion of Ryan Simpkins early on, who was coincidentally just about our favourite from the bounce.

MILLER: And Adam Goldberg, who he had accomplished A Beautiful Mind with.

FORTIN: I feel David was the final puzzle piece, and wow, we lucked out.

Which shot or sequence through the filming or through the modifying was the actual ache within the ass?

MILLER: The entire film. I’d say the ultimate exorcism as a result of each exorcism film has to have an exorcism on the finish. There are these tropes it’s important to go to, and I feel that that was one of many huge ones as a result of we did not have plenty of time.

FORTIN: I bear in mind, additionally, the get together sequence.

MILLER: Oh, yeah. Don’t ever make a celebration sequence.

FORTIN: Don’t ever write a celebration sequence.

MILLER: Cut that out of your script proper now in the event you’re writing one.

FORTIN: Right now. Go house and do it as a result of it’s a hell I’d not want on my worst enemy. [Laughs]

MILLER: We cannot even say what occurred. It was too loopy.

One of the issues I actually like is you may have the opening the place you might be in a sound stage and also you constructed this home. Talk a bit of bit about making a film inside a film.

MILLER: When I used to be an adolescent, there was a historical past of movie textbook, and on the duvet of the guide was a manufacturing nonetheless from The Diary of Anne Frank, the set. It was a bisected set similar to you see within the opening of this film, and that picture has all the time stayed in my creativeness as to how enchanting it’s to take a look at life being recreated inside a world inside a world. What we wished to do was make it possible for the movie that was inside the movie felt enchanting and felt haunted. The dollhouse must be a personality within the film, and that is what we tried to create. So, that was all the time a very vital half. There have been occasions the place they have been like, “We shouldn’t build it. It’s too expensive. Let’s not do this.”

FORTIN: “What if it was one floor?” And we have been like, “So, a set?” [Laughs]

MILLER: Exactly.

The line producer or somebody should have been like, “Are you sure?” It’s a very nice set.

FORTIN: [Production designer] Michael Perry is a genius.

MILLER: Yeah, Michael has tales. He must be up right here, too. But I feel that that was definitely worth the battle. I all the time love that shot. It’s my favourite shot. At one level, it wasn’t gonna be within the film, that opening shot — that was one other factor we fought to get again within the film. You choose your battles, proper? But that was one of many ones that I’m actually glad that we caught to as a result of it is really easy to put in writing it off. It’s simply simple within the finances and stuff.

I am unable to consider that was even debated not being within the film.

MILLER: There are plenty of writers and artists on this room, and nothing’s a shock, proper? Everyone’s dashing and everybody’s kind of not pondering straight if you’re in that type of rush. Part of the problem of the film was, additionally what occurred through the filming is that there was an enormous hearth in Australia on the time and it was coming near his farm and he needed to depart. So we needed to shut down and rearrange the entire thing. I imply — cursed film. There’s a historical past of cursed films. This film wasn’t cursed essentially by demons, however loopy stuff occurred that simply saved occurring.

FORTIN: Also, this factor known as COVID.

How Quentin Tarantino Saved ‘The Exorcism’

Who did you present it to that gave you one of the best suggestions or notes that impacted the completed movie?

MILLER: Well, I’ve an attention-grabbing supernatural story. There have been some attention-grabbing woo-woo issues occurring, however there was a second a 12 months in the past the place you may have that second of, “I just can’t do this. I just have to give up, and I have to walk away from this movie.” We have been within the modifying course of, and I used to be scuffling with my place in it, and I used to be like, “What do I do?” The telephone rang, and it stated “unknown number.” I used to be like, “Okay, it’s someone famous, obviously.” “It’s Quentin! I just watched a movie with your mother in it, and it’s this movie about the making of a movie, and I have to talk to you about it! It’s the greatest movie I’ve ever seen and no one’s ever seen it?” And I assumed, “Okay, Quentin Tarantino is calling me out of the blue to tell me about a movie that he loves that my mother stars in that’s about the making of a movie.” And I assumed, “This is my mother coming through to tell me, ‘Don’t walk away from the movie.’”

FORTIN; Your mom absolutely organized that.

MILLER: I’ve even stated this to him. So I stated to the studio, “No, I’m gonna stick with the movie and let’s finish it.” I do know this seems like loopy LA stuff, however I consider in it. I stated to him as soon as, “I feel like she sent you to me.” And he is like, “I know! Do you think she’d like me?” I’m like, “Yeah, she’d like you, and I know you’ve probably seen her in Playboy and all her movies.” What’s actually attention-grabbing about that is — and that is Quentin, I assume with a wink — this weekend when the film opens right here, he additionally programmed at midnight one in all his favourite films, Russ Meyer’s Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, which my mom is without doubt one of the leads of. She made this when she was 16. What’s actually spooky is that the film opens on Friday the 21 which, that is heavy, however right here goes, it is the five-year anniversary of her passing. So, it is kind of this unusual confluence of issues occurring which can be associated to her. If you do not just like the film, be careful, she’s gonna come for you.

I stated this earlier than the film began, I’m gonna say it once more, I actually wanna give Quentin an enormous thanks for letting us display screen this tonight and in addition for the Vista Theatre and every little thing he is doing. I simply examine Quentin in Paris saving a theater. I simply fucking respect what he is doing.

MILLER: Hanging out with him and attending to turn out to be his buddy and him embracing you as a fellow movie lover is so infectious since you simply begin to consider that something’s attainable. With the eagerness to create issues, you do not take no for an reply. You levitate round him when he talks about movie. Thank God he has existed on the earth to teach us all about all varieties of movie from all components of the world and create areas like this all over the world in order that hopefully we will all proceed to do these wonderful experiences of being collectively. So sure, thanks, Quentin, wherever you might be.

Related

What Would Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Movie Critic’ Have Been?

Tarantino’s remaining movie was a dream undertaking, till it wasn’t.

AUDIENCE: What was the thought course of behind the title?

MILLER: To be sincere, that’s not the unique title. The authentic title of the film is The Georgetown Project. There are considerations that that title could also be too ambiguous, et cetera, et cetera. But there’s sure concessions you make. What ought to I say?

FORTIN: Some stuff you management, some stuff you don’t.

AUDIENCE: Did something scary occur on set?

MILLER: Every day. [Laughs] Waking up was scary.

FORTIN: It’s a college night time and I really feel like individuals have to alleviate babysitters and stuff, so I do not know. [Laughs]

MILLER: Nothing horrific occurred, thank God. It was, “Well, how’s Russell gonna feel this morning? Oh, he’s called you to his trailer. Uh oh.” It’s like going to the principal’s workplace. But nothing dangerous in any respect in that means, fortunately. Knock on wooden.

What’s Up Next for This Duo?

What are you guys engaged on now? What are you allowed to say publicly?

MILLER: They’re brewing, however I additionally write books, so I’m ending a brand new novel. We’re engaged on creating a attainable prequel to Queen of the South as a brand new sequence and in addition a few films.

FORTIN: There’s a coming-of-age horror story that is about manners.

I’m very inquisitive about this. Is there something extra you need to say about that or is that the tease?

FORTIN: Not but.

MILLER: One different factor we have been pondering I’d direct is there is a guide popping out about my grandfather. He was a glamour photographer. I’m realizing that plenty of the tales that I wanna inform, or my duty as a filmmaker, is to be an archivist. I see myself as somebody who’s documenting issues and making an attempt to hold on legacy, like penning this love letter to a basic horror movie like The Exorcist or The Final Girls, which is an homage to my mother being a remaining woman and being a scream queen herself. In the custom of constant to doc household tales and legacy, I wanna do a really small movie, possibly even on 16-millimeter. I wanna do the story about Marilyn Monroe and my grandfather and this fateful weekend that they had in 1947 when she wasn’t Marilyn Monroe, she was Norma Jean. It’s this character examine of simply following them for that weekend that’s gonna be a part of a good looking photobook of all the photographs he took over that weekend.

What’s loopy is that is true.

MILLER: It’s a real story, yeah. He additionally took the enduring flying skirt image of Marilyn on the set of The Seven Year Itch. But he knew Norma Jean when she was 20 and he was 30 at the moment. He ran into her popping out of the dentist, and she or he requested him if he thought she may very well be attractive and if he would take some attractive footage of her. And yeah, the remainder is historical past. So, that is one thing we have been serious about too.

I positively suppose that that is one thing to pursue, for positive.

MILLER: He was a Jewish immigrant. He had simply escaped Nazi Germany and got here right here, and he had grown up in an orphanage. He was additionally in an orphanage, so that they each actually related on that, that they each had misplaced their properties in a means.

When you guys noticed the capturing schedule in entrance of you for making the movie, what day did you may have circled when it comes to, “I can’t wait to film this,” or, “How are we gonna film this?”

FORTIN: How lengthy was the schedule for the opening with Adrian [Pasdar]? It was very quick.

MILLER: We needed to maintain chopping days, so that you see the times disappearing after which it’s important to modify and determine it out. I feel probably the most thrilling and terrifying day was the morning I wakened, and we have been strolling downstairs, and you are like, “Holy shit, it’s really happening.” I feel everybody understands that feeling. You type of really feel like unexpectedly, in that second, you are like, “I don’t know how to do this.” In that second, you are like, “Wait, I forgot everything I learned. Everything.” And then you definitely simply maintain transferring ahead. Even although there can be scheduling challenges, we had to consider that, however I feel there have been components the place we tried to not let that be too oppressive and simply give attention to the story as a lot as we might and hope that the producers can be prepared to provide us extra respiratory room to have extra days. It was all the time like, “Maybe they’ll give us another week. Maybe we’ll get another day.” You simply maintain pushing, and in the event you maintain sending them footage, typically you truly get that additional week or that additional day.

The Exorcism is in theaters now. Check out the hyperlink under for showtimes.

Buy Tickets