David Gordon Green carried 'monumental movies on our shoulders' to revive 'The Exorcist'

David Gordon Green is not afraid to take on the classics.

The writer and director made a trilogy of “Halloween” films, undaunted by the legacy of the John Carpenter classic. Now he’s made “The Exorcist: Believer.”

It’s an interesting turn in a career that has included directing underrated indie dramas (“Snow Angels,” “Joe”), big-budget comedies (“Pineapple Express”) and TV (“Eastbound & Down,” “The Righteous Gemstones”).

But he’s really leaned into horror lately, and with two more “Exorcist” films planned, he’ll be at it for some time to come.

Green spoke about his willingness to take on iconic properties, and more. (Interview edited for length and clarity)

How Theatrical performers, like Leslie Odom Jr., bring stagnant environments to life

Question: This is a little off the subject, maybe, but watching Leslie Odom Jr. in “The Exorcist: Believer,” he is so smooth when he’s just walking it looks like he’s dancing.

Answer: He's got a cool way to walk. But that is the beauty of what he brings, it's the energy, the physicality, the voice — he has trained for so many years on stage.

And in many ways a lot of our cast is a very theatrical cast. When we were putting the ensemble together, we kept that in mind, people that can take an intimate, and could be a very stagnant, environment, and through their own gestures and expressions and vocalizations bring it to life a little bit more vividly.

Scary start: How a Flagstaff childhood shaped the director of 'Scream VI'

Why Green's 'Exorcist' goes beyond Catholicism

Q: You represent a variety of faiths in the film. It could have played like parody, but it didn’t.

A: That's one of the things that my one of my co-writers, Danny McBride, and I talk about. We also do the series “The Righteous Gemstones" on HBO, and we live in a community with a variety of so many different religious perspectives and beliefs and spiritualities that one thing that we like to inject into all of our entertainment is non-judgement of those.

So we may make portraits of religion, but it's never giving a critical interpretation. It's actually trying to be from within a believer themselves.

Q: The original film was very much a Catholic movie. There’s a priest in yours, but why did you decide to include more faiths?

A: Your opportunity is, you have this title that means a lot to millions of people around the world. So, if you're the steward of “The Exorcist,” you have a lot of a lot of questions you have to ask yourself as you're preparing for that creative journey. And one of the things is you have to keep in mind how many exorcism movies, or movies about demonic possession, have happened in the last 50 years since that very innovative, monumental cinematic masterpiece was made in 1973.

There have been a lot of movies that are inspired by or rip them off or emulated (them) to some effect. And so we're trying to find ways to distinguish ourselves and our story. As I got into the research, I was really fascinated by the fact that almost every religion I was exploring had a ceremony to exercise negative energy to some degree. And sometimes that's a specific demonology. And sometimes it's more vague. Every culture has these types of rituals.

And so I love the idea of using this movie and perhaps the trilogy that we're tasked to make over the next few years, to be able to explore those and bring those conversations to light. So it's not just a redundant “Power of Christ compels you” narrative. We're looking at things that include that, but also challenged that, also open it up beyond that.

After 'Halloween' and 'The Exorcist,' what's next?

Q: In my mind there are three unassailable horror films. You’ve already made “Exorcist” and “Halloween” movies. So when are you going to make “The Shining?”

A: Wow. What’s interesting about “The Shining” is that movie is such a specific, abstract, almost non-narrative in a lot of ways. So I think that's its own (Stanley) Kubrick art project that, I don't know how.

I’ve talked a little bit with (director) Mike Flanagan about “Doctor Sleep.” And it seems very daunting. But he would say the same thing about me, actually. He came out and visited the set of our “Exorcist” film, and it was kind of cool to swap notes about having these monumental movies on our shoulders.

And if we're going to be the stewards of these opportunities, we have to be able to acknowledge that there's an enormous fan base, and then put that away and make a very personal film. And I respect that he did that with that film. I think that's incredible. And we try to do that with ours.

'The Exorcist: Believer' brings back Ellen Burstyn, but not the sheer terror of the original

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. X, formerly known as Twitter: @goodyk.

Subscribe to azcentral.com today. What are you waiting for?

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: David Gordon Green shows no fear in making 'The Exorcist: Believer'