The power of Taylor Swift compels you. And it’s also worked its ways on producer Jason Blum, who cast out his The Exorcist: Believer to an earlier October release date to avoid a clash with Swift’s concert film.
Blum explained his reasoning in an interview with EW.
“The one thing that scares me to death is Taylor Swift!” Blum said.
“We had this amazing Friday the 13th in October, which is the single best day to release a scary movie,” said Blum. no doubt shaking his head. He originally paid homage by writing the tag #Exorswift” on Twitter when the Eras announcement came out.
Later that same day, things changed. “Look what you made me do,” Blum wrote, quoting a Swift song. “The Exorcist: Believer moves to 10/6/23 #TaylorWins.”
“Obviously, we moved off that 2024 and we bowed our head to Taylor Swift,” Blum said. “It was too risky to see if ‘Exorswift’ was going to take or not. People will still have the Exorswift opportunity, so maybe we got to have our cake and eat it, too.”
The Exorcist: Believer stars young actors Lidya Jewett and Olivia O’Neill as a pair of demonically possessed children, Leslie Odom Jr. as the father of Jewett’s character, and Ann Dowd as a nurse. Oscar-winner Ellen Burstyn reprises the role of Chris MacNeil for the first time since William Friedkin’s original film. The “Believer” film is directed by David Gordon Green,
“I really give David Gordon Green credit for that,” Blum says. “He was able to get Jamie Lee Curtis comfortable [on 2018’s Halloween], and David got Ellen to feel comfortable to join us in this iteration of her iconic movie.”