The Exorcist: Believer Director David Gordon Green Reveals He’s Never Been Approached for Marvel or DC Movies

With the exception of Martin Scorsese, David Cronenberg, and other rock star directors who have expressed overt disdain for superhero movies, Marvel Studios seems like it has had conversations with pretty much every big-name filmmaker in Hollywood. Turns out that isn’t the case with one obvious choice: David Gordon Green, the Pineapple Express filmmaker who surprised everyone by churning out an acclaimed and hugely successful of Halloween movies. He’s turned his attention toward The Exorcist and, while promoting Exorcist: Believer this week, he told Happy Sad Confused that he hasn’t yet spoken with Marvel ro DC. 

Green has been rumored for a Star Wars movie, but as it turns out, he’s never had any conversations about superhero films.

“No, strange, no. Isn’t that weird?” Green said. “I think it’s a bombastic career of someone without a lot of supervision. I think I have a very strict professional discipline. I’m always on time and I’m always on budget and these types of things that I adhere to, and that’s why people hire me, is I say ‘this is what you’re going to get’ and this is what you get. But I think there’s a huge empire of a franchise, and to that degree they’re so costly, so expensive that they have to check a bunch of boxes….I think I’m too ridiculous for that. I’m too playful and I want to be the one who says ‘We’ve got it, we’re moving on now.’”

He also admitted that he doesn’t have a ton of interest, thinking of comics in terms of Dennis the Menace and Richie Rich more than superheroes.

“I just think I look at things a little bit different, and I also want to minimize visual effects,” Green said. “I can’t wrap a scene that was entirely shot on green screen and feel confident on it, because I don’t know what it’s going to look like….Those type of question marks make me really insecure.”

You can see the full episode below.

Here’s how Blumhouse describes The Exorcist: Believer:

Exactly 50 years ago this fall, the most terrifying horror film in history landed on screens, shocking audiences around the world. Now, on Friday, October 13, a new chapter begins. From Blumhouse and director David Gordon Green, who shattered the status quo with their resurrection of the Halloween franchise, comes The Exorcist: Believer.  

Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Tony winner and Oscar® nominee Leslie Odom, Jr.; One Night in Miami, Hamilton) has raised their daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett, Good Girls) on his own.

But when Angela and her friend Katherine (newcomer Olivia Marcum), disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil.

The film also stars Emmy winner Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale, Hereditary) as Victor and Angela’s neighbor, and Grammy winner Jennifer Nettles (Harriet, The Righteous Gemstones) and two-time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz (Fosse/Verdon, Bloodline) as the parents of Katherine, Angela’s friend.

The Exorcist: Believer is directed by David Gordon Green from a screenplay by Peter Sattler (Camp X-Ray) and David Gordon Green, from a story by Scott Teems (Halloween Kills), Danny McBride (Halloween trilogy) and David Gordon Green, based on characters created by William Peter Blatty.

The film is produced by Jason Blum for Blumhouse and by David Robinson and James G. Robinson for Morgan Creek Entertainment. The executive producers are Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Stephanie Allain, Ryan Turek and Atilla Yücer. Universal Pictures presents a Blumhouse/Morgan Creek Entertainment production in association with Rough House Pictures.