During CinemaCon last week, Lionsgate and Blumhouse announced they were developing a new “Blair Witch Project” movie. This news came as a surprise to many, including the team behind the original 1999 film. While this isn’t the first time the crew was cut out of follow-up films, they at least knew about those.
“It’s bittersweet, honestly,” Ben Rock, production designer for “The Blair Witch Project” told The Hollywood Reporter about the reboot. Rock confirmed that no one, including co-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, was significantly involved in 2000’s “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2” directed by Joe Berlinger. Let alone the 2016 reboot “Blair Witch” directed by Adam Wingard. While Rock doesn’t seem opposed to being involved, no one from Lionsgate or Blumhouse contacted anyone about it.
“I do think that what has happened twice now was that the original creators were overlooked, and other people were brought in, all of whom were good,” says Rock about the follow-up films. “But neither one of the sequels connected with audiences the way they wanted it to connect. And so it might at least be worth talking to some of the original creators.”
Artisan did hire Rock to consult on the franchise in the lead-up to the 2000 sequel. However, he ultimately didn’t work on the movie itself. “I understand that you can be too close to something, and maybe an outside perspective is helpful, but in aggregate, it didn’t work,” Rock says of “Book of Shadows.” “They didn’t make the hit that they wanted to make.” Adding, “I’m hoping Blumhouse isn’t like, ‘Hey, let’s go reboot this without talking to anybody [from the first one].’ But they haven’t talked to any of us.”
More “Blair Witch” Team Reactions
Co-producer Mike Monello, who helped conceive the 1999 film’s website that claimed everything was real, complete with missing person fliers for the cast, also weighed in. “Radical idea: You could try putting this project in the hands of the original team that made the first one,” Monello posted. “You know, the team that actually has an entire franchise plan to reinvent what a Blair Witch movie could be?” He also tagged producer Jason Blum, Lionsgate, and Blumhouse in the post.
Joshua Leonard, one of the film’s three leads, learned about the new movie from a friend who sent a screenshot of a media report. Adding insult to injury, the report used a still of Leonard in “The Blair Witch Project,” as the main image.
“I’m so proud of our little punk-rock movie, and I LOVE the fans who keep the flames burning,” Leonard posted to Instagram. “But at this point, it’s 25 years of disrespect from the folks who’ve pocketed the lion’s share (pun intended) of the profits from OUR work, and that feels both icky and classless.”
“I don’t know how you outdo what we did,” says Rock. “But I care about the franchise, so whoever does it, I hope they handle it with care.”
Neither Blumhouse nor Lionsgate have commented on the situation.
