Julius Avery: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: Daniel Zovatto has signed with Gersh for representation.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Julius Avery, the director of “Samaritan,” “Overlord” and “The Pope’s Exorcist,” has come on board to direct the new alien abduction thriller “They Found Us.” The film hails from “Smile” producers Temple Hill Entertainment and Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios, which is financing the project. AGC Intl. will handle international sales and co-rep U.S.

The Pope’s Exorcist starring Russell Crowe has been given a sequel according to the film’s producer.Directed by Julius Avery (Samaritan), the supernatural horror film saw Crowe play real-life figure Father Gabriele Amorth, a Catholic priest who claimed to have performed thousands of exorcisms over his career.The film was based on Amorth’s books, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories, released in 1990 and 1992 respectively. Other cast members included Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe and Franco Nero.The film became an unexpected box office success at the cinema, making $76.9 million (£61.25million) from a budget of $18million (£14million).Now, producer Jeff Katz, took to X, formerly Twitter, to say a sequel had been green lit.“I just got the call,” he wrote in a post, adding that “it’s officially happening.”He continued: “ Thank you to the amazing #ThePopesExorcist fans.

Russell Crowe makes a splash in the horror genre in The Pope’s Exorcist.Directed by Julius Avery, the supernatural horror film stars Crowe as real-life figure Father Gabriele Amorth, a Catholic priest who claimed to have performed thousands of exorcisms over his career.A synopsis reads: “The Pope’s Exorcist follows Amorth as he investigates a young boy’s terrifying possession and ends up uncovering a centuries-old conspiracy the Vatican has desperately tried to keep hidden.”Other cast members include Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe and Franco Nero.In the film’s final act, Amorth and Father Esquibel (Zovatto) discover the demon possessing young Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) is Asmodeus, the king of hell. The demon’s aim is to possess an exorcist, so that it can release other demons and take down the Church.During the exorcism of Henry, Amorth offers himself to be possessed by Asmodeus – falling in line with the demon’s plan.

The Pope’s Exorcist has become one of 2023’s unexpected box office hits.Directed by Julius Avery (Samaritan), the supernatural horror film stars Russell Crowe as real-life figure Father Gabriele Amorth, a Catholic priest who claimed to have performed thousands of exorcisms over his career.The film is based on Amorth’s books, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories released in 1990 and 1992 respectively. Other cast members include Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe and Franco Nero.As reported by Bloody Disgusting in April, early development on a sequel is believed to be underway.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot points, including the ending for “The Pope’s Exorcist” currently playing in theaters. Director Julius Avery has “only seen parts” of William Friedkin’s classic “The Exorcist.” “I’m not a massive aficionado of exorcist movies,” he tells Variety. Yet despite that, his latest release, “The Pope’s Exorcist,” which is based on Gabriele Amorth’s books “An Exorcist Tells His Story” and “An Exorcist: More Stories,” follows the Vatican’s chief exorcist to Spain. Played by Russell Crowe, Father Amorth teams up with a priest, Father Esquibel (Daniel Zovatto), to investigate a young mother, Julia (Alex Essoe), and her children, who have recently become possessed by a powerful demon.

Five wide releases hit theaters this weekend, but Illumination and Universal’s Super Mario Bros. Movie will reign supreme with a second weekend, -60% of $58M. Already the plumbers have plunged a running stateside total through nine days of $260M, with $300M+ this weekend in sight.

Como se dice, “What the hell?”The priest, whose beard is mysteriously much whiter than his hair, is sent to the abbey by the pope — “Charlie’s Angels” style. The building was recently inherited by Julia (Alex Essoe) after the car-accident-impalement death of her husband.

It is hard to look at any movie with “Exorcist” in its title and not immediately think of William Friedkin’s eternal 1973 Oscar-winning horror classic that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Nevertheless there have been dozens of films of various stripes that have tried to conjure their own magic in this sub-genre, but none that have managed to surpass what Friedkin and screenwriter William Peter Blatty did with that brilliant film.

Guy Lodge Film Critic On the face of it, “The Pope’s Exorcist” would have you believe that it’s rooted in the real-life experiences of the late Father Gabriele Amorth, the Catholic priest who served for 30 years as the head exorcist of the Diocese of Rome. Its screenwriting credits proclaim as much, for starters, while a surfeit of onscreen dates and locations in the early going lend proceedings the faintest of docudrama veneers; moreover, the film is backed by the non-profit production arm of the Jesuit research university Loyola Marymount, with Loyola rector Father Edward J. Siebert among its executive producers. Even Catholics in high places, it turns out, have a sense of humor: You needn’t wait for the “work of fiction” disclaimer in the closing credits to discern that “The Pope’s Exorcist” is ripely fantastical trash, inspired by Amorth’s work in much the same way that SunnyD is inspired by Florida oranges, and no less enjoyable for those liberties. Rather than the Bible or any of Amorth’s autobiographies, Julius Avery’s film instead swears by the trusty story template shaped by every demonic-possession horror film since “The Exorcist” a full half-century ago, as a hapless American teen is inhabited by an ancient minion of Satan with increasingly yucky, upchucky consequences, while a venerable priest is called upon to clear up the mess.

Ever since “The Exorcist” terrified audiences decades ago, Hollywood has been obsessed with possession horror. The idea of a demon taking over the body of a helpless person is the perfect mix of realism with the supernatural that it has become a story told over and over again.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic There’s a standard road map for an actor like Sylvester Stallone — at 76, still looking good, but no longer with a body made of rock(y) — to enter the comic-book movie zone, and that’s for him to play a figure like the righteous Ravager Stakar Ogord in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” or to voice King Shark in “The Suicide Squad.” That’s all likable nostalgic novelty casting. But what if Stallone, who in his way has played invincible superheroes for decades (think “Rambo” and its sequels or “The Expendables” and its sequels), wants to go full avenger and portray a total comic-book demigod? He’ll star in a chintzy slice of hellfire like “Samaritan,” based on the Mythos Comics graphic novel that was published in 2014. It’s set in Granite City, an everyday dystopia where Stallone lugs his body around with a reluctant roughneck shamble. He plays an aging crime-fighter-in-hiding in a movie that as written by Bragi F. Schut (who also wrote the comic) and directed by Julius Avery offers a conventional but downbeat, minimally plotted but maximally incendiary variation on bare-bones superhero action.

EXCLUSIVE: Sylvester Stallone has signed with CAA.

EXCLUSIVE: Legendary Italian actor Franco Nero (Django) has been tapped to play the Pope in Screen Gems’ supernatural thriller The Pope’s Exorcist, with Laurel Marsden (Ms. Marvel), Cornell S. John (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald) and newcomer Peter DeSouza-Feighoney also now set for the film from director Julius Avery. They join an ensemble led by Academy Award winner Russell Crowe, which also includes Alex Essoe and Daniel Zovatto, as previously announced.

EXCLUSIVE: Alex Essoe (Midnight Mass) and Daniel Zovatto (Station Eleven) will join Academy Award winner Russell Crowe in the Julius Avery-directed supernatural thriller The Pope’s Exorcist for Screen Gems.

Sony is pushing their Spider-Man family title Madame Web from July 7 to Oct. 6, 2023. That first weekend of October has been a gold mine for the Culver lot where they own the month’s second and third biggest openings with Venom: Let There Be Carnage ($90M) and Venom ($80.2M).

The Pope’s Exorcist.Directed by Julius Avery (Overlord), the film will star Crowe as real-life figure Father Gabriele Amorth, a priest who acted as chief exorcist of the Vatican and performed more than 100,000 exorcisms in his lifetime.Amorth, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 91, detailed his experiences of battling demons in two memoirs titled An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories.“It’s been a goal of mine to work with Russell,” Avery said in a statement (via The Hollywood Reporter). “To collaborate with him on the amazing Pope’s Exorcist is truly a dream come true.”Production is scheduled to start in Ireland in September.Avery’s next film is Samaritan, a superhero film based on the Mythos Comics graphic novels by Bragi F.

Russell Crowe has consistently been one of the biggest film stars on the planet for nearly 25 years. And in recent years, the Oscar-winning actor has been choosing some really intriguing roles and is seemingly at the point in his career where he is ready to have fun.

Russell Crowe (Thor: Love and Thunder) has signed on to star in Julius Avery’s film The Pope’s Exorcist for Screen Gems, Deadline can confirm.

Angelique Jackson Ron Howard’s ripped-from-the-headlines drama “Thirteen Lives” has moved to August, with the film launching globally on Amazon’s Prime Video shortly after a limited theatrical release.Produced and directed by Ron Howard, the film follows the 2018 rescue mission of a Thai soccer team and their coach who were trapped in a system of flooding underground caves. The film’s cast is led by Colin Farrell, Viggo Mortensen and Joel Edgerton, with a script by William Nicholson.Previously dated for Nov.