Hollywood fired him, buried his film, then begged him back. Schrader's revenge is cinema.
A documentary chronicling director Paul Schrader's ride through hell and back while making film history with his prequel to The Exorcist. Schrader, after being fired from the production and his version of the film shelved, is brought back 2 years later to complete it on a shoestring budget. In true cinéma vérité style we watch as Schrader and editor Tim Silano work all the angles to get the film on its feet and over to Europe for the world premiere.
Editing
Tim Silano's real-time salvage mission is documentary gold
Direction
Schrader directing himself being directed by chaos—meta as hell
Director
Tim Silano
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This doc captures peak 2000s franchise decay: when studios greenlit TWO versions of the same prequel, burned $80M, and still couldn't kill the IP.
Vittorio Storaro shot both Schrader and Harlin versions with different lighting philosophies—watch for his barely-contained despair at the premiere.
US
