5. Everybody Almost Directed The Exorcist
There was a time when absolutely everybody wanted to direct
The Exorcist, because have you read the script for
The Exorcist (it's great!). And whereas nobody would've likely pulled it off quite as brilliantly as William Freidkin did, there were a few other Hollywood directors who almost helmed the horror classic. And that includes Stanley Kubrick (who, to be be fair, rejected it straight away), Mike Nichols (who didn't want to work with children), Arthur Penn (who was teaching at Yale at the time), and John Boorman (who didn't like the film's dark treatment towards children).
The Last Picture Show's director Peter Bogdanovich was also considered, but eventually passed on the project to pursue other things.
Would It Have Been Any Good? You could argue that absolutely any of the directors mentioned above would have brought something special to
The Exorcist, but it ultimately seems perfectly suited for Freidkin - it's hard to imagine anybody else tackling it with such unashamed bluntless.