More News on "Exorcist" Original & Prequel

The upcoming "Exorcist" prequel has a new director - Renny Harlin ("Nightmare On Elm Street 4"). The movie was temporarily stalled after Paul Shrader - the original director - left the movie because of "creative differences" with the studio. Apparently, the studio felt that the movie Shrader delivered to them wasn't gory enough. Harlin is scheduled to direct 6 weeks of (probably bloodier) reshoots. Shrader's name will remain on the final movie.

"Exorcist: The Beginning" will tell the story of Father Merrin's first encounter with the devil in post-WWII Africa. The movie stars Stellan Skarsgård ("Breaking The Waves"), Gabriel Mann ("The Bourne Identity"), and Clara Bellar ("AI"). "The Beginning" was not scripted by the novel's author William Peter Blatty, who wrote the screenplay for the 1973 original.

In other "Exorcist" news, on Wednesday, when ex-Warner Bros. accountant Ruben Mellado filed suit against his former employers. In court papers, he claims he was fired for uncovering profit participation irregularities with the 1973 original "The Exorcist" and 140 other films.

Last July, Warner Bros. settled a suit with "The Exorcist's director William Friedkin and author/producer William Peter Blatty. The pair claimed that the studio intentionally understated the movie's revenue so they could underpay them.

Mellado joined Warner Bros. in 2002 and found the errors, which he brought to the studio's attention. He alleges that the studio knew about the problems as far back as 1999, but did nothing to correct them.

Sources: Forbes, Variety