10 Movies Where The Director Hated The Source Material
8. Exorcist II: The Heretic
After the enormous success of 1973's The Exorcist, it was only inevitable that Warner Bros. would want to rush out a sequel, yet both director William Friedkin and writer-author William Peter Blatty opted not to return.
Legendary Brit filmmaker John Boorman (Deliverance) was eventually hired to direct, after turning down an offer to helm the original film due to finding Blatty's novel "rather repulsive."
But Boorman was intrigued by the idea of making a more hopeful, metaphysical sequel, and one counter to the "ugliness and darkness" of Friedkin's film.
He took particular issue with how much of the original Exorcist focused on "torturing a child," and wanted to veer away from that completely.
And while he certainly did depart from the original movie - despite producers originally wanting to make Exorcist II a low-budget rehash of the same base premise - both critics and audiences loathed his sequel, which is often ranked among the worst of all time.