Paul Schrader was given no money for publicity or music production after Morgan Creek decided to release his version. He was also only given $35,000 for visual effects and post-production. Additionally, Morgan Creek chose the release date of May 20th, the weekend Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) came out.
Paul Schrader was originally hired as director of Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), but Morgan Creek ultimately rejected his "psychological thriller" approach, saying it was "commercially unmarketable". The decision was made to extensively rewrite and re-shoot the script, re-cast several roles, add and remove characters, and give the director's chair to Renny Harlin. Schrader's version was originally supposed to be released direct to video, as a bonus feature on the DVD release of Harlin's version. However, in the wake of Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)'s box office failure, Morgan Creek abandoned this idea, allowing Schrader to present his version at several film festivals, as well as giving it a small scale theatrical release in several countries under a new title (Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist). Schrader's version also received support from William Peter Blatty, who said to The Houston Chronicle that Schrader's version is "a handsome, classy, elegant piece of work."
Stellan Skarsgård is playing a younger version of Max von Sydow's character from The Exorcist (1973). Skarsgård is nearly a decade older than von Sydow was during the filming of the original movie.
On the day of audition, Gabriel Mann went to meet director Paul Schrader dressed as a priest and carrying a DVD copy of The Exorcist (1973). He immediately got the role.
John Frankenheimer voluntarily stepped down from directing the film (then referred to as "Exorcist: Dominion") one month before his death in July 2002.