Sean Mathias Joins Creative Team of THE EXORCIST; Play Heading for Broadway?

BroadwayWorld has just learned that a stage version of The Exorcist is currently in the works, and Tony nominee Sean Mathias is on board to direct the project.

The play, adapted by John Pielmeier, enjoyed a run at Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse in 2012, starring Richard Chamberlain and Brooke Shields. Production details have not yet been announced.

Ben Sprecher (Producer) is a Broadway producer who is also currently preparing the Broadway musical adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier Rebecca due on Broadway in 2015/16; William Peter Blatty The Exorcist adapted by John Pielmeier and the musical adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilders' Little House on the Prairie. Mr. Sprecher Broadway productions include: David Mamet's American Buffalo directed by Robert Falls starring John Leguizamo, Cedric the Entertainer and Haley Joel Osment; Eugene O'Neil's Moon for the Misbegotten starring Eve Best, Kevin Spacey and Colm Meaney, James Kirkwood's comedy Legends! starring Joan Collins and Linda Evans, the Broadway revival of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple starring Nathan Lane and Mathew Broderick; the Tony award-winning Broadway production of Fortune's Fool starring Alan Bates and Frank Langella; Larry Gelbart's hit Broadway comedy Sly Fox starring Richard Dreyfuss and Eric Stoltz; the Tony award winning production of Hal Holbrook's Mark Twain Tonight and the Broadway thriller Voices in the Dark starring Judith Ivey. He operated the Lucille Lortel Theatre (formerly the Theatre de Lys) for twenty three years and built and operated the Variety Arts Theatre, The Promenade Theatre and the Little Shubert Theatre.

Stuart Snyder (Producer) was most recently President and COO, Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media at Turner Broadcasting System, a Time Warner Company. During his tenure (May 2007 - March 2014), Mr. Snyder was responsible for media properties such as Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and Boomerang, as well as their accompanying digital entities and associated animation production studios (Cartoon Network Studios and Williams Street Studios). Mr. Snyder was also responsible for developing and producing content for global Cartoon Network operations, and for leading a team of over 400 employees across three US offices. Prior to this, Mr. Snyder served as Senior Vice President/General Manager at Turner Broadcasting's gaming network GameTap (September 2005 - May 2007), President & CEO at CINAR Corporation (January 2003 - March 2004), President & COO at World Wrestling Entertainment (June 2000 - November 2001), and President & COO at Feld Entertainment (1996 - 1999). Mr. Snyder recently joined the Board of Directors of Cupcake Digital, Inc and serves on the Advisory Board of Insightpool Inc. Mr. Snyder is a National Trustee for Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and sits on the Anti-Defamation League's Southeast Regional Board of Directors.

Sean Mathias (Director) productions have received global acclaim from Northern Ireland to New Zealand. They have visited many international cities including Paris, Sydney, Cape Town, Los Angeles, New York and London and have played on various stages including the Royal National Theatre, the Music Centre Los Angeles, the Kennedy Centre Washington DC, Berkeley Rep, the Sydney Opera House, the Market Theatre Johannesburg, the Oliver Tambo Hall in the township of Khayelitsha, South Africa as well as the London Fringe, the West End and Broadway. He has directed classic plays by Anhouilh, Beckett, Chekhov, Cocteau, Coward, De Filippo, Ibsen, Pinter, Shakespeare, Sophocles, Strindberg and Williams as well as works by contemporary writers Samuel Adamson, Pam Gems, Richard Greenberg, Ronald Harwood, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Edna O'Brien, Bernard Pomerance, Martin Sherman and Stephen Sondheim. He has won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, a Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes Film Festival, a Critics' Circle Award and an Evening Standard Award as well as nominations for the Olivier and Tony Awards. He was Artistic Director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket for 2009/2010 where his legendary production of Waiting For Godot starring Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart smashed all box office records and the debut production of Breakfast at Tiffany's enjoyed a sensational run prior to playing on Broadway. In 2013 he co produced and directed Two Plays in Rep on Broadway which comprised Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Pinter's No Man's Land. He is the author of the plays Cowardice, Infidelities, A Prayer For Wings, Poor Nanny, Swansea Boys and of the screenplay The Lost Language of Cranes. He directed the movie Bent.

John Pielmeier (Adaptor and Author) began his career as an actor, working at Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Guthrie Theater, Milwaukee Rep, and the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights' Conference. He is the author of the Broadway Production and film of Agnes of God His other plays include the Broadway production of Voices in the Dark, winner of the he 1999 Edgar Award for Best Play; Haunted Lives. As an actor her performed in the Broadway Productions of The Boys of Winter; Sleight of Hand; Jags, presented at the O'Neill Playwrights' Conference; Impassioned Embraces; Steeplechase The Funny Place, a musical. He served as the Keynote Speaker for the Harriet Lake Festival of New Plays in Orlando, Florida in February 2008. He has written many movies for television, including Sins of the Father ; For Choices of the Heart; The Happy Face Murders, The Stranger Within; The Last P.O.W.: The Bobby Garwood Story; The Shell Seekers; Through The Eyes Of A Killer; Reunion ; Submerged; Original Sins , a miniseries adaptation of Dominick Dunne's An Inconvenient Woman; Dodson's Journey; Forbidden Territory (National Geographic's premiere television film on Stanley's search for Livingstone); We Are Circus, an episode of Showtime's series on the rescue efforts of Righteous Gentiles during the Holocaust; a new adaptation of Flowers For Algernon; Living With The Dead, a miniseries based on James van Praagh's life and experiences; the critically acclaimed Hitler: The Rise of Evil (Emmy nomination, Best Miniseries), The Capture of the Green River Killer, an adaptation of Kim Edwards' The Memory Keeper's Daughter, and a new adaptation of Sybil. He co-wrote the narration for National Geographic's IMAX film Mysteries of Egypt. His adaptation of Gifted Hands, the inspiring autobiography of Doctor Ben Carson, was nominated for the Humanitas Prize and for a Critics Choice Award. His adaptations of two Patricia Cornwell mysteries, At Risk and The Front, aired on Lifetime in April 2010, and his adaptation of The Pillars of the Earth, an eight-hour series based on Ken Follett's best-selling novel, aired throughout the world beginning in July, 2010. It received three Golden Globe nominations, garnered him his fifth nomination for a Writers Guild Award, and won a Gemini Award, a Romy Award, and an Emmy nomination for Best Miniseries. His eight-hour adaptation of World Without End, Ken Follett's sequel to Pillars, premiered in the autumn of 2012. His latest play, a stage-adaptation of William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, is under option for Broadway, as is Agnes of God, set for a revival in 2015-16.

William Peter Blatty (Original Author) is an American writer and filmmaker. The Exorcist, written in 1971, is his most well-known novel; he also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation, for which he won an Academy Award, and wrote and directed the sequel, The Exorcist III. His most recent works include the novels Elsewhere (2009), Dimiter (2010), and Crazy (2010). In 2013, Demons Five, Exorcist Nothing: A Fable (1996) and Dimiter (2010) were re-released as revised editions with new covers and interior artwork. Each were limited to 250 signed copies. Blatty's upcoming publications include The Exorcist For The 21st Century featuring "an original and never before published adaptation for a new miniseries of Blatty's classic novel,"] and a non-fiction book that is "part funny memoir and part proof of life after death," entitled Finding Peter: A Wild Ride In Search Of The Soul. He is also featured in the 2014 Smoke And Mirrors anthology, featuring the teleplay "Hell Hospital" and the treatment "Faith"

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos