Yahoo News William Friedkin’s Many Unrealized Projects, from ‘Exorcist’ Sequels to a ‘Killer Joe’ TV Series
William Friedkin, one of the great directors of the New Hollywood movement, died August 7 at the age of 87. The news launched an outpouring of love for the director, whose ’70s and ’80s film work proved some of the most enduring and beloved of that cinema-redefining period.
The son of Jewish Ukrainian immigrants, Friedkin was born in 1935 and got his start as a director making documentaries for Chicago public television. In 1965 he moved out to Hollywood to advance his career and made his narrative feature debut with “Good Times,” a vehicle for Cher and Sonny Bono. Friedkin put out several generally well-received films, including the groundbreaking “The Boys in the Band” and “The Birthday Party,” but truly broke out with 1971’s “The French Connection.” Starring Gene Hackman and featuring one of the greatest car chase scenes in cinematic history, the movie earned Friedkin a Best Director Oscar and gave him the clout to pursue passion projects.
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Over the course of his career, Friedkin remained one of Hollywood’s most interesting directors and one of the greatest masters of the thriller genre. Films like 1985’s “To Live and Die in L.A.” were successes upon release, while 1977’s “Sorcerer” and 1980’s “Cruising” were reevaluated decades later as unfairly maligned. But his most famous film is undoubtedly 1973’s “The Exorcist.” Starring Ellen Burstyn and 13-year-old Linda Blair, the adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel is one of the most iconic and beloved horror films of all time.
In spite of Friedkin’s track record of great films, he — like many New Hollywood icons, including Martin Scorsese — has a range of projects that died in early development. After the runaway success of “The Exorcist,” Friedkin flirted with adapting William Peter Blatty’s other works but never quite managed to get one produced. A variety of projects the director was attached to starring A-list talent — Marlon Brando, Sylvester Stallone, and Anthony Hopkins, among others — went unfilmed. And towards the end of his life, he was involved in TV adaptations of some of his most famous projects that for one reason or another never got off the ground.
Here’s a roundup of Friedkin’s most notable unrealized projects, from scripts that never got produced to movies he was attached to before dropping out. Entries are listed in roughly chronological order.
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