By MICHAEL GINGOLD
One of this year’s busiest genre actors is getting busier still.
Variety reports that Al Pacino and Dan Stevens are starring in THE RITUAL, for which XYZ Films has picked up worldwide rights. The company will give the movie theatrical release in 2025 and set up international distribution at next month’s Cannes Film Festival marketplace. The director is David Midell of the award-winning THE KILLING OF KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, who scripted with Enrico Natale, and the cast also includes Ashley Greene and Abigail Cowen. According to the trade, “THE RITUAL follows two priests–one questioning his faith [Stevens] and one reckoning with a troubled past [Pacino]–who must put aside their differences to save a possessed young woman through a difficult and dangerous series of exorcisms. The film is an authentic portrayal of Emma Schmidt, an American woman whose demonic possession culminated in harrowing exorcisms. Her case remains the most thoroughly documented exorcism in American history.”
Pacino previously ventured into the supernatural playing the satanic John Milton in THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE (pictured above), while Stevens has three genre features out this year: GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE, ABIGAIL and CUCKOO. You can read our interview with him about ABIGAIL here.
