The Orchard has acquired worldwide rights to director William Friedkin’s real-life exorcism documentary “The Devil & Father Amorth,” the company announced Wednesday.
The company plans an April 20 theatrical release for the doc, which records an actual exorcism performed by the Vatican’s Father Gabriele Amorth as he fights to expel Satan from an Italian woman.
The film, produced by LD Entertainment’s Mickey Liddell and Pete Shilaimon, arrives 45 years after Friedkin directed the blockbuster, “The Exorcist.” Friedkin had received permission to travel to Rome and meet with 91-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth, the “Vatican Exorcist,” to film a real-life exorcism.
“The world’s fascination with William Friedkin’s ‘The Exorcist’ as a piece of art and a debate about religion and spirituality has never waned,” Paul Davidson, The Orchard’s EVP Film and Television, said in a statement. “We share his fascination with the topic and the evolution of the discussion that is front and center in ‘The Devil & Father Amorth’ and are honored to be partnering with him to bring the film to audiences.”
“In the early 1970s when I directed ‘The Exorcist’ I had not witnessed an exorcism but I wondered how close I had come to portraying reality,” said Friedkin. “I had been curious to meet Father Amorth for many years and when he granted permission to meet and film him in Rome last May, it was the opportunity to complete the circle and see how close that film came to reality.”