10 Films That Switched Directors During Production

After years of inactivity, the Exorcist franchise looked to be truly dead. But then a theatrical re-release of the original film did surprisingly well, raking in over $100 million, and the producers at Morgan Creek grew money-hungry once more.

The resulting film was Exorcist: The Beginning, which was set to explore the backstory of Father Merrin (the priest from the original film). But the production of the film wound up being far more horrifying than any film could have ever been.

Director Tom McLoughlin was originally attached to direct the film during pre-production, until the script attracted the interest of award-winning director John Frankenheimer. The producers immediately fired McLoughlin and brought Frankenheimer onboard as the project expanded in scale from small-budget horror to big-budget biblical epic. But then, before filming could begin, Frankenheimer passed away.

Morgan Creek then somehow convinced art-house darling Paul Schrader to come out of retirement for the first time in twenty years to take over the film. Schrader got all the way through filming and even into post-production before things went colossally sideways. He showed his first rough cut to Morgan Creek executives and they were outraged, allegedly vehemently hating the film.

Morgan Creek fired Schrader, hired Renny Harlin and proceeded to reshoot the entire film with a brand-new, hastily-written script. Harlin's film (billed as Exorcist: The Beginning) flopped and was torn apart by critics. This lead to Morgan Creek then releasing Schrader's cut (billed as Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist) on home release. Both of them were very poorly recieved.