The original The Blair Witch Project cast has united for a public proposal to Lionsgate designed to better serve their legacy and those of future aspiring filmmakers.
The Blair Witch Project Cast Unite for Proposal
The proposal by Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael Williams seeks retroactive and future residual payments “for acting services rendered in the original BWP, equivalent to the sum that would’ve been allotted through SAG-AFTRA, had we had proper union or legal representation when the film was made.”
It also asks for meaningful consultation on future films and would like the studio to start a grant for aspiring filmmakers.
The Blair Witch Grant to be created with a 60k prize (the original film’s budget), which would be awarded “to an unknown/aspiring genre filmmaker to assist in making their first feature film. This is a GRANT, not a development fund, hence Lionsgate will not own any of the underlying rights to the project.”
This comes after Joshua Leonard’s image was used in the announcement for an upcoming reimaging from Lionsgate and Blumhouse. Leonard and others involved with the original film had no idea a new film was in the works until that point, which left them once again feeling disrespected by Lionsgate’s handling of the Blair Witch franchise.
There’s been a growing animosity between rights holders Lionsgate and the original Blair Witch team. Joshua Leonard said, ”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.”
Production designer Ben Rock harbors no ill will toward Lionsgate, but recently voiced a similar opinion that Lionsgate should be consulting those who made the breakout indie smash 25 years ago on any new project.
“I don’t know how you outdo what we did,” said Rock. ”But I care about the franchise, so whoever does it, I hope they handle it with care.”
The Blair Witch Project is coming up on the 25th anniversary of its theatrical release this Summer and it still stands as a monumental film in horror history in how it utilized the burgeoning power of the internet to build a myth around the film, blurring the line between reality and fiction.
It still stands as one of the most profitable films of all time, having been made for just $750,000 (including marketing) and ending up as one of the ten highest earners of 1999, impressively keeping company with the likes of The Matrix and The Phantom Menace thanks to a cool haul of nearly $250 million worldwide.
The Blair Witch Project revival is set to be the first among several collaborations between Lionsgate and Blumhouse as they seek to bring horror franchises gone by back from the dead.
