I hope all those who
frequent this website have a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe
2010. I set off abroad to Hawaii tomorrow evening, and will not be
back until the new year. Here is a quick bit of news in the meantime,
from Cemetery Dance:
LOW STOCK WARNING! The Exorcist
and Legion by Wiliam Peter Blatty
Lettered Edition
Already Almost Sold Out!
Collectors take note! Both editions of our brand new signed special
edition of
The Exorcist and Legion by William Peter Blatty are
selling very well and the LETTERED EDITION is nearly sold out!
If you want a copy of this beautiful deluxe Lettered Edition for your
collection, this could be your last chance to order! Don't wait!
Featuring these two classic novels in one collectible volume for the
first-time ever, this oversized deluxe special edition will be a
must-have for any collector of horror!
This special signed Limited Edition also includes a bonus
career-spanning interview conducted by Cemetery Dance Managing
Editor Brian Freeman, covering Blatty's life and career from the 1950s
to the present.
An excerpt of this interview appeared in
Cemetery Dance #62, the William Peter Blatty special issue, but
that was just a small taste of all of the great topics Blatty
discussed in the epic interview.
This 500+ page special edition is ready for the printer and will be
published next year. Don't wait to place your order!
Today
we're very pleased to announce a brand new special edition of
The Exorcist and Legion by William Peter Blatty!
Featuring these two classic novels in one beautiful volume for the
first-time ever, this oversized deluxe special edition will be a
must-have for any collector of horror! This special signed Limited
Edition also includes a career-spanning interview conducted by
Cemetery Dance Managing Editor Brian Freeman, covering Blatty's
life and career from the 1950s to the present.
This 500+ page special edition is ready for the printer and will be
published next year.
Available in two states:
•
Limited Edition of 750 signed and numbered copies bound in a fine
cloth and issued without a dust jacket ($75)
• Traycased Lettered Edition of 52 signed and lettered copies bound
in leather with satin ribbon page marker ($400)
From January 15 - 31,
2010, Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane will make its stage debut
at the Santa Paula Theater Centre in Ventura County, California.
Please click on the banner below for further information.
Friday the 13th has
proven to be a day full of revelations.
To be
concise: Cemetery Dance Magazine issue #62 has arrived.
Here
are the contents:
-
LOST scenes from The Exorcist & Legion - The
CONTROVERSIAL Short Story that never saw print - Kealan Patrick
Burke returns to Legion - A NEW epic Interview
This
latter "epic interview" is indeed very epic. Here are a few excerpts:
CD: Looking back, is there anything you would change about the film
now if you could?
WPB: Yes and no. I would love to have been able to include the
subplot involving Karl and his daughter Elvira, which I did in my
first draft, but that script ran to 172 pages, much, much too long.
But I might have it my way in the near future, inasmuch as I've
written an Exorcist miniseries script that not only faithfully
includes all the main elements of the novel, but also some
rather spooky new material and scenes, as well as a totally new (and
perhaps much more satisfying) ending. I've also updated it. Billy
Friedkin has agreed to direct.
>
CD: How did Samuel L. Jackson end up in the movie [The Exorcist III]?
WPB: Sam Jackson's appearance in Legion was unknown to me
until the day when we were shooting the dream sequence and someone
pointed to him and said, "Hey, did you know that's Sam Jackson over
there?" He was pointing to an actor wearing dark glasses who played a
blind man and had only one line, "The living are deaf." "Why in the
world is he doing this?" I asked, and the answer was, "He just wanted
to be in it." In later years I wrote an Exorcist mini-series
script with an African American as Karras and talked to Jackson about
it but he didn't want to do television.
>
CD: Do you have interest in directing again?
WPB: George told me when we were filming Legion, "Nobody
directs anybody!" But, yes, there's some interest in Germany in my
film script of Elsewhere which, if it gets off the ground, I
would in all likelihood be directing. It's good to get out and have a
tiger by the tail now and then. Stimulating.
You
may view scans of the entire sections devoted to Bill in the William
Peter Blatty >
Articles section:
It
should be noted that the entire, full-length interview will be
available in an upcoming new special edition of The Exorcist
and Legion being released soon through Cemetery Dance
Publications.
On June 1, 2010, both
Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane (1966) and the
republished/reworked The Ninth Configuration (1978) novels will
be re-released in a single volume, according to amazon.com. The set
will be available in both hardcover and paperback formats, featuring a
long essay (afterward) by
Mark Kermode.
On November 7, 2006,
Bill's son Peter Vincent Galahad Blatty passed away at the age of
nineteen. Please take a quiet moment to think about Peter. If you are
unaware of his life, you can read comments made by Bill and his wife,
Julie Blatty, on the following memorial page:
Bill's long-awaited theological thriller, Dimiter, will hit
stores on March 16, 2010 and is dedicated to Peter. Please see
previous posts for ordering information.
As
with "Elsewhere," ARC (advance reading copies) of "Dimiter" are now
beginning to appear, utilizing the more elaborate and attractive cover
art that was talked about in the previous update. Provided below is an
image of the dustcover I received directly from Bill, coupled with the
slightly different cover art applied to the ARC.
Cemetery Dance issue #62 is now available, but it won't be for a few
weeks until I receive my order placed with them. If anyone reading
this has a copy and wishes to provide scans of the sections devoted to
Blatty, please contact me.
Just a quick update
while we wait for issue #62 of Cemetery Dance magazine to arrive (it
is currently at the printer). Bill's long-awaited novel called
"Dimiter" will finally hit shelves on March 16, 2010. From what he has
told me, Bill has been working on it since as far back as 1974, and it
was not until a short time ago, when he experienced a spiritual
revelation, that he was able to complete it. "Dimiter" is dedicated to
Bill's late son,
Peter Vincent Galahad Blatty.
The
novel will be available in hardcover and audio CD (audiobook) formats.
You can read several pages from amazon.com if you click on "search
inside this book" at the following location:
Bill
was kind enough to send me a preview of the hardcover version's dust
jacket in the mail, and it differs significantly from the cover
currently presented on the amazon.com page. The design I have seen is
absolutely stunning, and will be posted here in due time.
Firstly, it must be
acknowledged that "Elsewhere" has been selected as book of the month
by "Book of the Month Club", and amazon.com has sold out of the first
shipment, requiring the book to go back to the presses. Be sure to
order through CemeteryDance.com now if you are after any remaining
first edition copies! Congratulations, Bill.
Furthermore, we have yet more exciting
information from
CemeteryDance.com regarding the upcoming magazine issue #62:
"Cemetery Dance #62, the William Peter Blatty special issue, is
currently being proofread and will be ready for the printer at the end
of July, right on schedule for the September release date. We haven't
posted the contents on our website just yet, but if you look to the
right, you'll see a small preview of the amazing Les Edwards cover
artwork for the issue. And if you
subscribe today, you won't have to worry about picking up the
issue on your local newsstand when it comes out!"
In order to bring
TheNinthConfiguration.com full circle, I will (within the next week or
so) re-launch the forum, add the "image" galleries to both the TNC and
Legion sections, compile the "quotes" pages, and fill in the remaining
blanks that have said "under construction" since the site was
launched. Ironically, these are things I would normally do first
with a website (as I have done in the past), but I have focused
primarily on relevant updates and rare images/videos for the most part
here.
In
any case, look out for all of this and more in the coming weeks! I
will also finally create the "My Personal Collection" page (located in
"Other" in the above menu), just in time for the arrival of the
numbered and lettered editions of Elsewhere, along with a
couple of other extra goodies I have on the way.
Mr. Brian Freeman from
Cemetery Dance
has once again supplied TNC.com with a nice little bit of insight
regarding upcoming Blatty-related material:
"Our
next Blatty book is not DIMITER, but instead a special edition of a
previously published book. (I actually interviewed Bill for this
special edition and it turned into a 10,000 word marathon covering
everything from his early days through DIMITER and other upcoming
projects. Part of that will appear in CD [Cemetery Dance Magazine]
#62.)
For the special issue of the magazine, we have two previously
unpublished "lost" sections of Blatty scripts and an old short story
of his that has never been published. All very good stuff! :)"
I am
unsure at this stage whether these latter "lost" sections are the same
ones that will appear in the "SMOKE AND MIRRORS" release mentioned
below in the April 15 update. As soon as it is determined, it will be
added to this entry. Plenty of good stuff to look forward to in the
future, Blatty fans!
Update: They are previously unseen sections from Bill's scripts for
The Exorcist and
Legion.
I would first like to
preface this update with another posting made by
Cemetery Dance:
"And finally, if you’re a big William Peter Blatty fan like we are,
keep watching your inbox for the Cemetery Dance newsletter because we
have a surprise project to announce later this summer — and it’s going
to sellout VERY quickly once the news gets around!"
Sounds exciting! Now, on to the main news...
Simon Mordue has
been kind enough to pass along a plethora of rare promotional images
and lobby cards to TheNinthConfiguration.com, which have been added
(in addition to the recent Mexican lobby cards) to the TNC > Film >
Rare Images / Video, Etc. section.
His
contributions range from "Lobby Card (4)" to "Promo Photo (18)":
This morning I received
a very thoughtful e-mail from Bill, providing me with some very exclusive
content for TNC.com. I will here post what Bill had to say, and provide
the images he sent along below. Enjoy!
* * *
"When
my son Paul told me he was studying German film at the University of Maryland,
mentioning "M" and Fritz Lang, it sent me into recall of something I've
never told anyone and that might interest your site, and it's that at
a time before The Exorcist, I met with the elderly Fritz Lang at a coffee
shop somewhere in Beverly Hills with a view to him standing behind me
as a directorial mentor should I ever get The Ninth Configuration financed,
as at that time I couldn't imagine even directing my grandmother across
the street. Fritz agreed to do it but passed away before I ever got the
funding. My impression of him was that of a very sweet-natured old world
gentleman.
What an incredible opportunity missed! I also have a couple of photos
for your site should you ever want to use them. One is of a Man named
Gerald Lankester Harding, whom I knew when I was stationed in Beirut.
He was formerly Curator of Antiquities in Jerusalem at which time he was
instrumental in bringing the Dead Sea Scrolls into
view of the public: an old Bedouin led him to the cave containing the
scrolls. Anyway, Gerald was the physical model in my mind when I created
the character of Father Merrin [from The Exorcist], whose first name,
please note, is Lankester. Another is a photo of me and Linda Blair at
the preview of "The Version You've Never Seen." Also an oddball photo
of me in Air Force OCS. Still searching for a Ninth C. photo on the set
in Budapest. One day I'll find and send."
* *
*
Listed
below are the images of Gerald Lankester Harding, who Bill based Fr. Lankester
Merrin on from The Exorcist novel and film. Additionally, here
are the images of Bill with Linda Blair from the "TVYNS" screening in
2000, along with Bill's photo from his time in the Air Force OCS. Please
click on the thumbnails to view the full-sized images.
With
any luck, he will also be able to locate the shot from Budapest on the
set of The Ninth Configuration! We will keep you updated, should
anything else be located.
Thank
you very much to Bill for providing this excellent insight to TNC.com!
As mentioned in the recent
post from May 23, here is the "miscellaneous" TNC content that I have
had sitting around. Alternatively, you can find the Legion miscellanea/updates
in the
Legion
section of the website.
Firstly,
a new photo of Bill can be located in the William Peter Blatty >
Photos section:
Furthermore,
seven Mexican lobby cards from The Ninth Configuration (all of which I
have puchased!) can be located in the TNC > Film >
Rare Images /
Video, Etc. section
of the website, plus two other obscure images I managed to locate: one
advertising Bill and Mark Kermode's book signing session at "The Cinema
Store" back in 1999, and another image of Kermode and William Friedkin
signing a few different Blatty-related texts. Those two can be located
in the TNC > Film >
Variations section.
The first edition hardcover
of "Elsewhere"
is out now (officially as of May 15, 2009).
Cemetery
Dance are currently putting the finishing touches on the numbered and
lettered editions, and they should be sent out soon!
Incidentally,
I will be updating the main site shortly (when I get a free moment!) with
some other miscellaneous content to do with both TNC and Legion that I
have had sitting around for a while now. I will also begin re-compiling
the forum.
“The always popular
Special Issues are coming back this summer and the first two will be dedicated
to two of the biggest names in the genre, Peter Straub and William Peter
Blatty. We’ll be posting more about the incredible contents of these special
issues in the coming months, but we think readers are going to be thrilled
with the rarities these authors are making available here for the first
time ever.”
It has come to my attention
that William Peter Blatty will be featured in the "Smoke And Mirrors"
publication, due out in 2009. The Cemetery Dance website excerpt states:
"Just
a few of the highlights include a never before seen comic script from
Joe Hill; two rare teleplays from Frank Darabont; an original, never filmed
full-length screenplay by Mick Garris;
a rare teleplay and treatment
by William Peter Blatty;
Neil Gaiman's original take on an H.G. Wells' short story; Joe R. Lansdale's
stage adaptation of one of his legendary short stories; and much, much
more!"
It is
available in three different states, ranging from $40 to $400. When I
receive more information about Blatty's own contribution to the anthology
it will be posted here.
Update:
Bill has let me know the following about his particular contribution:
"The
teleplay is called FAITH, a modern-day fantasy Easter story I wrote for
the old Insight series. Lou Gossett was wonderful as the Christ figure.
As for the treatment, at the moment I can't recall what it was!!"
Further
Update: Brian
Freeman from Cemetery Dance has confirmed the treatment to be "Hell Hospital"
-
"I
believe they're older pieces from the 1970s and I'm not aware of these
pieces being published anywhere else."
Unfortunately, my web host
recently had a horrible catastrophe happen with their sever, and a lot
of people have lost the content for their websites. All of TheNinthConfiguration.com
had fortunately been backed up, but I am going to have to re-create the
forum, as none of the databases were saved. Please be patient.
Sitting in my drawer are
countless editions of The Ninth Configuration on DVD, VHS and BETA
VHS tapes, none of which I have paid particularly close attention to of
late. Today, however, I decided to investigate a couple of them, and in
doing so noticed a brief scene that is not featured on the definitive
DVD release that most people have in their possession. I have recorded
the (semi-explicit) scene and embedded it below. It takes place inside
the bar that Cutshaw and the bikers inhabit: two women carelessly displaying
their breasts.
The scene
can be viewed on the VHS 'guild' amaray case release of The Ninth Configuration
from the UK.
:: Mark Kermode talks about
the lost Legion footage
Mark Kermode, another fellow
Blatty, Ninth Configuration and Legion enthusiast, recently
spoke once again about the "lost" Exorcist III (Legion) footage,
which can be read about in more detail at the following links:
Mark
claims that the quest for the missing footage is "ongoing". Don't forget
to keep an eye on the upcoming
book by my dear friend, Erik Myers, which will detail this continuing
debacle from its very inception to the present day quest for the long
lost footage. Here is the link to the video, which I have also embedded
below:
