“The Exorcist: Believer” hits theaters this weekend, fifty years after the release of William Friedkin‘s 1973 original. And given Friedkin’s passing earlier this year, David Gordon Green will never know what the late director thinks about his film. Would Friedkin have been kinder than the critics torching “The Exorcist: Believer” ahead of its release? Who’s to say, but IndieWire reports that Green “was very curious to see” how Friedkin would take to the film, whether he enjoyed it or not.

Continue reading ‘The Exorcist: Believer’: David Gordon Green “Was Very Curious” To See What The Late William Friedkin Would Think Of His Horror Sequel at The Playlist.

The movie world lost one of its greatest living directors when William Friedkin passed away in early August. And Friedkin’s death happened just weeks before his last film, “The Caine Mutiny Court-Marshal,” had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. But Showtime swooped in on the Lido to snag the rights to the movie, and now it arrives on the streamer early next month.

Continue reading ‘The Caine Mutiny Court-Marshal’ Trailer: William Friedkin’s Final Film Premieres On Showtime On October 6 at The Playlist.

A quote by William Friedkin himself opens “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” describing the film, as well as all the filmmaker’s other works, as being about “the thin line between good and evil.” This line is all the thinner here, in the American director’s final feature, for it is entirely a matter of opinion. We are not given to see the facts of this story as they unfolded; we cannot watch and make up our own minds as to whether the people involved were right or wrong to act the way they did.

Continue reading ‘The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial’ Review: William Friedkin’s Deceptively Simple Swansong Is Another Morbid Excavation Of Human Weakness & Cruelty [Venice] at The Playlist.

The iconic filmmaker, William Friedkin, has passed away at the age of 87.

One of the famous directors to spawn from the “New Hollywood” era of film is probably best known for his work on the legendary horror film, “The Exorcist.” That film was nominated for 10 Oscars after its release, including Best Director. Friedkin also is known for the film that was released right before “The Exorcist,” 1971’s “The French Connection,” starring Gene Hackman.

Continue reading R.I.P. William Friedkin: ‘The Exorcist’ & ‘French Connection Filmmaker Has Passed Away at The Playlist.

With the writers and actors on strike, well, who the hell knows what’s going on? You may not hear from any actors, writers or hell, even directors who are not doing press in solidarity. So, in a bid to still continue making things interesting for you and for us, we’re reintroducing an old Flashback Friday or Throwback Thursday feature and just calling it “Flashback”: a fun excuse to highlight old interviews, old stories, classic movie stories and more.

Continue reading William Friedkin Talks Slapping An ‘Exorcist’ Priest & Making Gene Hackman Constantly Angry On ‘The French Connection’ [Flashback] at The Playlist.

It’s been more than a decade since William Friedkin directed a narrative feature. That was 2011’s “Killer Joe.” But that doesn’t mean the filmmaker behind “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection” is retired. Far from it. In fact, he just lined up his next feature.

According to Deadline, William Friedkin is set to direct “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” with Kiefer Sutherland leading the cast.

Continue reading William Friedkin To Direct Kiefer Sutherland In A Remake Of ‘The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial’ at The Playlist.

“The Exorcist” is not a movie you’d think of as being a franchise starter, and yet it has a fantastic sequel (“The Exorcist III“) and a vastly underrated TV series. This year, reports emerged that Morgan Creek Entertainment was planning a reboot of the film, but if you thought original director William Friedkin would be involved in the new project, think again.

READ MORE: ‘Leap of Faith’: A Reverential Look At William Friedkin’s ‘The Exorcist’ [Review]

Friedkin took to Twitter earlier this week to clarify rumors that he’d be involved.

Continue reading ‘The Exorcist’: William Friedkin Wants You Know He’s Not Involved With Remake, Says “Not Enough Money Or Motivation” at The Playlist.

If you’ve read William Friedkin’s 500-page autobiography, “The Friedkin Connection,” or the interviews he has done with The Criterion Collection, you know the veteran filmmaker is a raconteur of the highest order. Many of those tales are repeated in the new documentary, “Leap of Faith,” a reverential look at the 85-year-old director’s classic, still-chilling, career-making horror, “The Exorcist.”

READ MORE: The Best Horror Films Of 2020 (So Far)

The material is mostly familiar, and Friedkin’s failures are spun in his favor.

Continue reading ‘Leap of Faith’: A Reverential Look At William Friedkin’s ‘The Exorcist’ [Review] at The Playlist.

Honestly, in a world filled with a million different streaming options, pound-for-pound, dollar-for-dollar, is there a better offering than Shudder, specifically if you’re a fan of genre filmmaking? Sure, you can weed through the heaps of uninteresting stuff on Netflix for $15 per month (or whatever the price is now, as it keeps increasing) or you can enjoy Shudder, which has some great horror, thriller, and auteur classics, as well as pretty awesome Originals, all for $6 per month.

Continue reading ‘Leap Of Faith’ Trailer: William Friedkin Talks The Making Of ‘The Exorcist’ In This Shudder Exclusive at The Playlist.

By now, you ought to know the filmmaking career of legendary Oscar-winning director William Friedkin. If you don’t know Friedkin himself for some reason, you probably at least know films like “The French Connection,” and “The Exorcist.” But Friedkin’s career is extraordinary and offbeat, going from massive box office success (“The Exorcist”) and Oscar-dominating wins (“The French Connection”), to comeuppance from an industry (and critical industrial complex) that turned on the filmmaker known for his arrogance in his youth.

Continue reading ‘Friedkin Uncut’ Trailer: New Doc Dives Into The Life Of ‘Exorcist, ‘French Connection’ Filmmaker William Friedkin at The Playlist.

“To me, the two most interesting characters in the history of the world are Hitler and Jesus,” director William Friedkin declares in the opening moments of “Friedkin Uncut.” It’s the kind of statement that if you’d overheard it from someone at a party, you’d likely do your best to escape the room to find a better, less cringe-inducing conversation. But it’s not a surprise coming from Friedkin, whose filmography and interviews are littered with usually far more thoughtful moments of provocation.

Continue reading ‘Friedkin Uncut’ Barely Scratches The Surface Of The Filmmaking Legend [Venice Review] at The Playlist.

“The absence of color can be a stronger factor than the presence of color.” – Robby Müller

A master of light has passed. In a career that spanned four decades, and over 50 films, Dutch cinematographer Robby Müller barely made a bad film. And more often than not, the celebrated director of photography was involved in crafting the visuals of a stone-cold classic of modern cinema. Today, Dutch publication De Volkskrant reported that the renowned filmmaker passed away in Amsterdam.

Continue reading R.I.P., Cinematographer Robby Müller, 1940-2018 at The Playlist.

Hey, it’s #ThrowbackThursday and each week we look to the past and highlight something in cinema history that’s fascinating, amusing, perhaps something you never knew or have seen, you name it.

Believe it or not, one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most celebrated films, “Vertigo,” was released exactly 60 years ago, yesterday.

In celebration of this, for this week’s #ThrowbackThursday, we have a clip of filmmaker William Friedkin talking about his love of Alfred Hitchcock, and particularly “Vertigo.” In the clip, Friedkin calls the Hitchcock film “one of the great mystery stories ever filmed.”

READ MORE: Throwback Thursday: William Friedkin Laughs At Nicolas Winding Refn Calling ‘Only God Forgives’ A “Masterpiece”

“The director who most influenced me, and almost everyone else is Alfred Hitchcock because he basically invented suspense for the cinema,” explains the director.

Continue reading William Friedkin Explains Why ‘Vertigo’ Is “One Of The Greatest Mystery Stories Ever Filmed” at The Playlist.

Rule #1 if you’re choosing to tell a story: choose the appropriate medium, the one that tells your story the best…

On this episode of Adjust Your Tracking, Joe and I get lost and attempt to find ourselves in the cult of nonfiction filmmaking. We find rewards, new meaning in our lives, but that’s before things got dark. That’s right, it’s another documentary special episode of the podcast! We start this show off with a few brief thoughts on William Friedkin‘s “The Devil and Father Amorth” but don’t spend too much time on it as it’s kinda, sorta bad as a movie (read The Playlist’s review here).

Continue reading AYT Documentary Special: Discussing ‘Garry Shandling,’ ‘Wild Wild Country’ & ‘The Devil And Father Amorth’ [Adjust Your Tracking Podcast] at The Playlist.

Recently, we were happy to share a clip of legendary filmmaker William Friedkin talking to director Nicolas Winding Refn. In the clip, it’s obvious that Friedkin suffers no fools and is not interested in wasting his time with idle chatter. So, when you see that he was brutally honest and open in a recent interview with the Guardian, it makes complete sense.

The interview came about because Friedkin is promoting his most recent film, a documentary called “The Devil and Father Amorth.” The doc has come under fire since its premiere, due to people claiming that the film might actually be a hoax.

Continue reading William Friedkin Calls Film Critics “Schmucks” And Refuses To Discuss Harvey Weinstein at The Playlist.

One question looms evocatively over the 69 minutes consuming “The Devil and Father Amorth,” Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin‘s (“The French Connection”) latest documentary about real-life exorcisms: “is this really the random invasion of an external force?” A question that has perpetuated the widening of the gap between science and religion, the Vatican’s performance of exorcisms continues to be subject to scrutiny by both non-believers and even those who proclaim belief in Christ.

Continue reading ‘The Devil And Father Amorth’ Continues William Friedkin’s Obsession With Evil [Review] at The Playlist.

Continue reading “Success Is More Disorienting Than Failure”: Guillermo del Toro & William Friedkin Talk Their Oscar Experiences & More at The Playlist.

Hey, it’s #ThrowbackThursday and in the spirit of trying out something new, we thought we’d try out a new franchise where we look to the past and highlight something in cinema history that’s fascinating, amusing, perhaps something you never knew or have seen, you name it.

Today, we’d like to showcase a behind the scenes conversation that happened between legendary director William Friedkin and “Drive” filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn for the making of the 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release of Friedkin’s underappreciated 1977 gem,  “Sorcerer,” which arguably stands as probably the highlight of the whole disc.

Continue reading Throwback Thursday: William Friedkin Laughs At Nicolas Winding Refn Calling ‘Only God Forgives’ A “Masterpiece” at The Playlist.

It’s been a few years since William Friedkin released his last film, 2011’s underrated “Killer Joe,” but the famous director is back at with a new documentary “The Devil and Father Amorth,” which just released its first trailer today. The film follows Friedkin as he meets with a church-approved exorcist. Here’s the official synopsis:

“In his latest, William Friedkin returns not only to his documentary roots but to the subject of one of his most towering works, 1973’s THE EXORCIST.

Continue reading ‘The Devil And Father Amorth’ Trailer: William Friedkin Revisits ‘The Exorcist’ at The Playlist.

According to a survey by Fandango, the most popular Halloween costume this year for dudes is Pennywise from “It.” That’s hardly a surprise given that Stephen King‘s killer clown is now back in the spotlight thanks to runaway hit film, which has become the top-grossing horror movie all time, surpassing the classic “The Exorcist.” However, director William Friedkin has just a little quibble with that statistic.

Continue reading William Friedkin Weighs In On ‘The Exorcist’ Sequels And ‘It’ at The Playlist.

Things have been pretty quiet from “The Exorcist” director William Friedkin lately, and six years have passed since his nasty, underrated “Killer Joe.” A slew of projects have been lined up during that time — “The Winter Of Frankie Machine,” a TV series based on “To Live And Die In L.A.,” a TV series based on “Killer Joe,” and a Mae West biopic starring Bette Midler — but nothing has come to pass.

Continue reading William Friedkin Returns To Exorcism With Documentary ‘The Devil And Father Amorth’ at The Playlist.

As Gregory Ellwood made clear yesterday, the Best Picture Oscar is looking like a lock for “La La Land.” The starry-eyed musical led by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone is a cinematic treat that almost everyone has adored, and it’s pulled off with panache by “Whiplash” director Damien Chazelle. The superlatives for “La La Land” are only going to continue as the film opens in theaters this month and the awards season rolls on, with those both inside and outside the industry sitting up to take notice.

Continue reading William Friedkin Says ‘La La Land’ Director Damien Chazelle Is “The Future Of American Cinema” at The Playlist.

The 69th Cannes Film Festival is officially here, so to close out our set of features about it (here’s our Ranking of the 21st Century Palme d’Or Winners, the Best Breakout Films From Un Certain Regard, and 20 Movies Booed At Cannes) we turn our attention to the smaller, but often more genuinely innovative sidebar, the Directors’ Fortnight (known locally as the Quinzaine).

Established in 1969 by the French Directors Guild (and therefore not part of the festival’s Official Selection which reportedly leads to a little friction between the two entities), the parallel festival, held simultaneously with Cannes, has hosted some of the most exciting talents to have shaped modern film culture.

Continue reading The 20 Best Breakout Films From The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight at The Playlist.

Listen: William Friedkin Talks ‘French Connection,’ ‘Sorcerer,’ ‘The Exorcist’ & More In Epic 2.5 Hour 'WTF' Podcast Interview

Continue reading Listen: William Friedkin Talks ‘French Connection,’ ‘Sorcerer,’ ‘The Exorcist’ & More In Epic 2.5 Hour ‘WTF’ Podcast Interview at The Playlist.

The 10 Best & 10 Worst Follow-Ups To Best Picture Oscar Winners

Continue reading The 10 Best & 10 Worst Follow-Ups To Best Picture Oscar Winners at The Playlist.