The Discovery Channel is teaming up with the Vatican to create an exorcism reality show, James Hibberd reports:
The Exorcist Files will recreate stories of real-life hauntings and demonic possession, based on cases investigated by the Catholic Church. The project includes access into the Vatican's case files, as well as interviews with the organization's top exorcists -- religious experts who are rarely seen on television.
If the show's first season is successful, the network hopes its partnership with the Church will pave the way for producers GoGo Luckey to take the series to the next level -- joining Catholic investigators on live demon-purging ride-alongs. (Move over, Syfy's Ghost Hunters.)
Hibberd has more info on the show here.
We're not sure this is exactly in their target range, but if they're looking for fresh cases of witchcraft to dig into, Romania should prove fertile ground.
Everyone curses the tax man, but Romanian witches angry about having to pay up for the first time are planning to use cat excrement and dead dogs to cast spells on the president and government.
Also among Romania's newest taxpayers are fortune tellers -- but they probably should have seen it coming.
Superstitions are no laughing matter in Romania -- the land of the medieval ruler who inspired the "Dracula" tale -- and have been part of its culture for centuries. President Traian Basescu and his aides have been known to wear purple on certain days, supposedly to ward off evil.
Romanian witches from the east and west will head to the southern plains and the Danube River on Thursday to threaten the government with spells and spirits because of the tax law, which came into effect Jan. 1.
A dozen witches will hurl the poisonous mandrake plant into the Danube to put a hex on government officials "so evil will befall them," said a witch named Alisia. She identified herself with one name -- customary among Romania's witches.