The filmmaker, who made his debut with last year's incredible MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE is bringing the William Friedkin/William Peter Blatty classic to the small screen.

Vulture reports that Durkin is currently prepping/writing a new adaption of the novel and of course, the iconic Friedkin film, for a ten episode series produced by THE DEPARTED and EXORCIST III backers Morgan Creek. 

The site describes the series thusly, "Unlike the iconic 1973 film, Durkin’s version of THE EXORCIST follows the events leading up to a demonic possession and especially the after-effects of how a family copes with it: In short, not well, and when medical and psychiatric explanations fail, the desperate family turns to the church, with Father Damien Karras finally brought in to attempt the exorcism."

Sounds like we'll be getting a much more expanded and more involved look into the family life of the MacNeils and Regan's affliction both before and after the exorcisms. Durkin demonstrated with MARTHA MARCY that he can expertly orchestrate subtle, thoughtful and unsettling work, but there's no doubting that THE EXORCIST is a titan and undertaking a remake/new adaptation of it is certainly a daunting task. Even moreso, with three sequels and just about every subsequent possession film taking a page from THE EXORCIST's book, can a new iteration of the original story pack a punch? A series seems the way to do it, if so (rather than redo the film beat for beat), and as noted, Durkin is a very strong choice to get it going. 

No networks are on board just yet. 

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