Friedkin talks Exorcist Blu-ray, 3D, and remake

While William Friedkin hasn’t really been the director he was in the 1970′s, he still knows the craft and in a recent interview he talks about the changing environment in film, as well as the upcoming Blu-ray release of his classic The Exorcist. Here’s some samples:

On The Exorcist Blu-ray: “I currently have control over every single frame of film when converting it to Blu-ray. If I want a scene bluer, I get that scene bluer. Originally, there was some fluctuation with the prints. If you made a thousand, or a few thousand prints, there is no control over any of that. But now I can make a master using the digital process. That gives me total control over how I want the film to look in this new process. The films now look like they did when I was first looking through the viewfinder. Every time you run a 35mm print, it picks up scratches. It picks up dirt. Sometimes it breaks, and you have to re-splice it. You lose frames. This doesn’t happen with digital, or God knows, Blu-ray.”

On converting The Exorcist to 3D: “No. Never. Providing I’m still alive. Warner Brothers is obligated to come to me. And they do. The point is, it’s a totally different medium. I don’t like 3D. I don’t believe there is any film that I have seen and loved that would have been improved by a scintilla in 3D. To me, it’s just a gimmick.”

An IMAX Exorcist? “We talked about going to IMAX with it. Nothing is certain yet. They’ve tried to exploit The Exorcist in all sorts of media. I think that’s great. Because I love the new media.”

On an Exorcist remake: “It is what it is. Billy Wilder said it best. You should never really remake a picture. If a picture was great, it will stand. And you can’t top it. If it was a piece of shit, why would you want to do it again? I’m pretty sure that with the way things are going, and the lack of imagination that exists amongst the major studios these days, they are going to eventually remake everything.”

Friedkin is never at a loss for words. I’m personally just happy WB is consulting him on this Fall’s Blu-ray release, which should be stellar. Please read more of the interview here at The Movieweb.com as he talks more about such things as the sequels and more into 3D film making.

Source: Blu-ray