Hot on the heels of the news that Russell Crowe would be headlining The Exorcism comes the reveal that Al Pacino and Dan Stevens, most recently seen in a number of excellent shirts in Adam Wingard’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and fighting for his life against a pint-sized vampire in Radio Silence’s Abigail, will soon be co-headlining another exorcism movie, titled The Ritual.
The news comes to us from Variety, who shared the following:
“Al Pacino and Dan Stevens have teamed up for exorcism horror film “The Ritual” from director David Midell. XYZ Films has acquired worldwide rights to the feature, with plans to release it theatrically in 2025 and arrange international distribution at the upcoming Cannes market.”
Variety goes on to report that The Ritual will, like many exorcism movies before it, be based on a true story. In this particular case, the mismatched pair of priests played by Pacino and Stevens will be tackling the case of Emma Schmidt, “an American woman whose demonic possession culminated in harrowing exorcisms.” Apparently, Schmidt’s case is “the most thoroughly documented exorcism in American history.”
What’s behind the recent glut of exorcism films (which also includes Crowe’s The Pope’s Exorcist and David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer)? There’s no telling! What will set all of these exorcisms apart from one another? Also no telling, but it’s admittedly good fun to imagine Pacino loudly casting demons out of a possessed little girl. Of course we’re gonna watch that, are you kidding me?
Nothing further to report on The Ritual at this time, but rest assured that we’ll keep you informed as further updates roll in. Stay tuned for those, folks!
