William Peter Blatty, 'The Exorcist' Writer, Dies at 89

The Hollywood Reporter offers a piece on writer William Peter Blatty (seen in the below photo), the author of The Exorcist.

William Peter Blatty, the novelist and screenwriter who helped bring the iconic horror movie The Exorcist to theaters in 1973, died Thursday, the film's director, William Friedkin, stated. He was 89. 

No cause of death was disclosed. A rep for Blatty did not immediately respond for comment. 

Blatty, who claimed the screenwriting Oscar for The Exorcist at the 46th Academy Awards, wrote the novel of the same name in 1971. The film version, which he also produced, was nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture, but won just two trophies.

"Over the years, I understand that people consider it a horror film, and that's where it lives in the public consciousness," Friedkin wrote about The Exorcist in a 2013 essay for The Hollywood Reporter. "But it has never been that to Blatty or myself."

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/william-peter-blatty-exorcist-writer-dies-at-89-964093

The Exorcist's' Secret Message

William Peter Blatty, the author of The Exorcist, wrote an interesting piece for FoxNews.com about the impact of his novel and the film made from his novel.

That I am regularly hauled out of my burrow every Halloween like some furless and demonic “Punxsatawney Phil” always brings a rueful smile of bemusement to my lips as I lower my gaze and shake my head, for the humiliating God’s-honest truth of the matter is that while I was working on "The Exorcist," what I thought I was writing was a novel of faith in the popular dress of a thrilling and suspenseful detective story – in other words, a sermon that no one could possibly sleep through -- and to this day I haven’t the faintest recollection of any intention to frighten the reader, which many will take, I suppose, as an admission of failure on an almost stupefying, scale.  

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/10/28/exorcists-secret-message/