Exorcist theme park???

This is actually legit (from the Houston Chronicle) - William Friedkin shot the opening sequence of his 1973 horror classic in the town of Hatra, Iraq. And now: bq. "And then the Army hatched this idea," Friedkin continued, "to turn the whole area into a tourist attraction and call it 'The Exorcist Experience.'" bq. Friedkin was sent a copy of the story about Guran's experience in the Gulf Times, a newspaper published in Qatar. In the article, Guran says, "Once it's up and running again as a visitors' spot, this place will be a real money pot. You should see it at night -- we've put in floodlights and it looks really beautiful." bq. Breathing new fire into the old clich�s that war is hell and love of money is the root of all evil, American soldiers have found a way to wrest Western capitalism out of the Iraqi sands where part of Hollywood's most popular devil movie was filmed. bq. Granted $5,000 by the Army's Commanders Emergency Response Program, the soldiers hired unemployed Mosul University students as guides, created a parking lot, opened a police station and revamped a nearby hotel. The theme park, which is officially backed by the Pentagon, will be turned over to the Iraqis once it is operating. Admission will be $2 or $5 with a kabob lunch. bq. When Friedkin learned that the soldiers would welcome private contributions to create the park, he got in touch with the commander of the 101st Airborne and offered to kick in. He and Exorcist novelist and screenwriter William Peter Blatty, a Lebanese-American , hope to visit the site to help get it going. And more: bq. "I hope they'll arrange it," Friedkin said. "I would love nothing better than to return to Iraq. I've traveled all over the world and I have never felt closer to a people than I did to the Iraqis. They're regular guys, fathers who want good jobs so they can bring home food for their wives and kids, and who like to sit around and shoot the breeze and laugh." bq. In 1972, Friedkin spent three months shooting those spooky opening images of The Exorcist, sleeping in a tent near the train station in Mosul, where the Orient Express could be heard rumbling through the night. By day, he shot at a German archaeological site in the desert outside Hatra where there was a statue of Bazuzu, the Mesopotamian demon that possesses the young girl in the movie. bq. "I wanted vultures circling over Bazuzu," the director recalled. "So every morning I sent out locals to toss raw meat around the statue to attract the vultures. But little did I know that meat was so scarce in Iraq that the vultures had long ago switched to an all-carb pita bread diet. bq. "I never got the vultures in the shot. But I did get the attention of a local cult of devil worshipers called the Ysidi, who demanded to know why this crazy American was having raw meat tossed around Bazuzu every day as a sacrifice." bq. Friedkin also recalled that while he was there, before Saddam Hussein seized power, there was no American Embassy in Iraq, and that his passport was essentially useless as protection. bq. "We were guests of the Baath Party, then run by a guy who looked like Groucho Marx," Friedkin said, "and every morning I trained my Iraqi guides to salute his picture by chanting, 'Hooray for Captain Spalding!'" -- a reference to Groucho's character in Animal Crackers. bq. "I spent most of the time between shots teaching them American curse words," Friedkin continued. "Then they'd get in their taxis and smile at cops in Hatra and curse them out in English. The cops, who didn't understand a word of English, would smile and wave back. I had a blast." bq. Using "The Exorcist Experience" to attract people to the area would please Friedkin. bq. "Historically, it's the most astounding place I've ever seen," he said. "This site is an archaeological dreamscape of pre-Christian, Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian treasure in a country that is the cradle of civilization -- where Hammurabi created the first laws, where King Nebuchadnezzar's palace was unearthed. bq. "We lose track of all that in this war," Friedkin said. "I'd love for people to eventually flock to it for all those reasons. If `The Exorcist Experience' helps bring them there, I'd be flattered." This would be so cool. Afghanistan used to be a major stopping point for backpackers and world travelers before all the fundamentalist cult bullshit. It will be nice to see these places opening up again. The people are fantastic, it is the corrupt dictators who make these bad places.