The Exorcist to Hit the Los Angeles Stage - Pea Soup 'Vomit' Cancelled

Iconic 1970s horror film The Exorcist is set to make the unexpected transition from stage to screen.

The film that famously had audiences swooning in the cinema as a young Linda Blair vomited pea soup and performed shocking acts with a crucifix may not immediately spring to mind as suitable for a theatre adaptation, but director John Doyle thinks differently.

Brooke Shields and Richard Chamberlain will star in the adaptation of the film's source novel by William Peter Blatty, which aims to give a fresh spin on the book's central struggles of good versus evil, faith versus fact and ego versus ethos.

Audience members concerned that some of the film's imagery could prove too strong for their stomachs need not worry, as it appears the play with differ slight from the film, in which Ellen Burstyn and Max Von Sydow played the roles of mother and exorcist that will be filled by Shields and Chamberlain.

Emily Yetter will take on the challenging role of the possessed Regan.

Playwright John Pielmeier told The Wrap that the stage version will not share the grislier aspects of the film.

He said: "The story of the battle between faith and evil needed no spinning heads or green vomit.

"The horror should unfold instead on a simple set with an incredible cast - which we absolutely have - and the central conflict between doubting Father Karras and the demon should be a series of debates, in which the young girl possessed is the least of the figures present."

The stage version of the The Exorcist will be presented at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles from 3 July to 12 August.