Double your pleasure with demon possession, coming to home video soon.
An Exorcist prequel directed by Paul Schrader will be released to DVD around the same time a "replacement" version of the film directed by Renny Harlin also hits video stores, according to news sources.
In 2003, when Schrader had completed shooting his film starring Stellan Skarsgard and Gabriel Mann, studio Morgan Creek took one look and decided the "character-driven period drama" was not bloody or gory enough to suit expectations.
So they fired Schrader and tapped Die Hard 2 director Harlin to shoot a completely new version, complete with bloody, gross-out horror. Mann and several other actors were also replaced. Only about two minutes of Schrader's original Exorcist: The Beginning remain in the second film.
It is hoped that the DVD release of Schrader's version of the film will make up for the cost of having to shoot the film twice. Whether the simultaneous release of the DVDs will be detrimental to either version remains to be seen.
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