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The Arrow
-THE BEGINNING-
THE ARROW'S SET REPORT
(PART 3)
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Welcome to the third and final installment of my "Exorcist: The Beginning" set report (part 1 here, part 2 here). As a closing act, I've prepared a short, but insightful interview with the screenwriter of the film, Caleb Carr, as well as more pictures that you can shake an "arrow" at via the extensive PHOTO GALLERIES found below. Have fun guys!
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CALEB CARR INTERVIEW |
ARROW: Who wrote the
first draft of "Exorcist: The Beginning"?
CALEB: Bill Fisher wrote a draft that they had on the shelf for a couple of years. When I went to work on some script polishes at Morgan Creek with a couple of friends of mine, I saw it and while the script itself was not particularly good, the concept of a prequel for "The Exorcist" was really fascinating. I was after them for a year and a half to let me take the project off the shelf and get a crack at it. When they finally let me have it, I started completely from scratch. I retained the 5 opening pages of the script because they were quite good, but the rest of the screenplay was kind of dumped. I finished the re-write right around the time the re-release of the original came out. The fact that they really liked the script combined with the fact that the original had such a big response is what made them decide to go forward with the project.
ARROW: In regards to the story itself, I’m a bit confused. Some people have told me that it’s about the particular “Exorcist” referred to in the original where Father Merrin took a couple of months to exorcize a boy in Africa. Other people have told me that it’s a totally different exorcist. Being that you wrote the script...maybe you can clarify that for me.
CALEB: It’s not the same African story that was mentioned in the book and the original film but it also happens to take place in Africa where he also happens to be doing archeological work. Those elements are the same, but the story itself is a completely different one.
ARROW: I’m assuming that you were a big "Exorcist" fan before tackling the screenplay for this prequel?CALEB: Yes, I was. I was particularly a big fan of the original. Parts 2 and 3 weren’t my favorite movies, but the original is a great one. The scariest part of the original to me were the parts that occurred before she was possessed, when you don’t really know what’s going on. The physical horror in that movie has become a little bit outdated now or a lot outdated where the elements leading up to it and the elements during the possession which are not reliant on physical horror aren’t. I think the psychological horror of the movie still remains very powerful and that’s what I tried to build on with this prequel.
ARROW: What kind of scares should the audience expect from this prequel?CALEB: I obviously can’t be specific, but I can say that this is a movie that’s extremely frightening. You’ll see some scary stuff, unquestionably, but in the same sense that "
The Sixth Sense" was a movie that wasn’t reliant on physical horror. This film will make people think about what’s happening and as much as it’s a movie about what the devil is capable of and about possession, it's also a movie about the evil that human beings are capable of. There’s a lot of scary stuff that happens through the human beings in this film, not necessary through demons or possessed people. It’s very psychologically oriented.ARROW: So were you happy to hear that Paul Schrader, whom in my opinion is an expert in dealing with character-driven stories, was the guy who wound up taking over the picture?
CALEB: I was delighted. He‘s not only an expert in character-driven stories, but he’s also an expert in the whole area of this kind of conflict. Obviously with “The Last Temptation of Christ”, he’s done a lot of work through his life on this very subject of evil and how the devil works and can bring a lot as to why a person would become an exorcist. These kind of philosophical questions are really the central points of the movie. What drives this guy to become an exorcist? Paul has written and directed lots of great movies and it’s very sad that John Frankenheimer had to give the project up and subsequently die. He was a great guy and there’s no replacing him, but if somebody had to replace him, which they did, Paul is a really good choice.
ARROW: What about his re-writes? I heard that he did a light polish on the script? How did you feel about them?
CALEB: Paul is a writer/director, so he’s going to do his own polish. Based on what I saw, his polish was light, the script was very similar to what I had done. He changed some stuff and obviously I agreed with some of it, and disagreed with others, but that’s his call. He’s the “auteur” and that’s what you get with an auteur.
ARROW: So what should people expect going into this picture?
CALEB: They should expect to be extremely frightened, they should expect for things not to happen the way that they’re used to in an “Exorcist” movie and they should try to look for things in unusual places. They should also expect to have to think about some things that are both very scary and very serious.
ARROW: Very kool. Thanks a lot Caleb, have a nice day man.
CALEB: Thanks John!
MORE DUTCH VILLAGE SEQUENCE PICS
I took a lot of on-set
pictures...yes, I'm a camera whore! Here are a few more from the "Dutch Village" scene
for your viewing pleasure.
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| Nazi chilling... | Nazi killing... | Nazi chilling... | Nazi killing crew?? |
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| Let's shoot this! | Time for a joyride? | Behind the finger | The Tent. 'Nuff said! |
MORE CINECITTA LOT PICS
Here are a few more pictures of the
impressive domain that is CineCitta, the studio in which some of "Exorcist: The
Beginning" was shot.
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| What's up here? | Gangs of NY set | So where's Leo? |
This is me getting
lucky
on Mel Gibson's "The Passion" set
'Sup pussycat?
MY PERSONAL ROME GALLERY
Of course, being in Rome and all, I had to take in the sights and visit
this splendid city. Here are a few pictures of what I saw if you give a
fudge. NOTE: I took over 100 pictures on this trip.
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| At the Trevi wish fountain | Mmmm...water and stuff | The Coliseum |
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| City ruins... | No idea what this is! | The streets of Rome |
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| More Rome street stuff | A statue being...a statue |
JOURNAL GALLERY
I was initially going to put up a
"journal" of my trip, but being that it wound up being too personal for me to
want to share with the world, I decided to slap a couple of pics up instead.
Most of them have to do with me being drunk alone or me being drunk with people around
me. I'm a simple man.
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| Drunk at my hotel | With my best friend: the bartender!! |
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| Drunk with Argento bud, Alan Jones | Drunk after a night of "pubbing" |
The webmaster crew:
(top left to bottom left):
Garth Franklin (Dark Horizons), Smilin' Jack Ruby (who wanted to remain incognito), Larry Carroll
(Counting Down), Patrick Lee (SciFi.com) and a certain drunk Arrow...again.
Eating my first meal of the
trip
I was let down by the food in Rome though. Give me a Big Mac over
"real" Italian food any day! (Note: I'm sober here...or am I?)
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This marks the end of my "Exorcist: The Beginning" set report. I hope you had fun reading it. I sure had a blast going at it.
This is The Arrow signing out!!
READ MY EXORCIST SERIES REVIEWS BELOW:
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