The Blair Witch Project Star Has Strong Feelings About Reboot News
"The Blair Witch Project" is a legendary horror feature for myriad reasons, from its perfect implementation of the found footage format to the fact that some folks genuinely believed its events were real. The iconic '90s horror film only took eight days to shoot, yet it has endured in popular culture for decades. Unfortunately, the magic of the groundbreaking feature led Hollywood to take things a step too far. "The Blair Witch Project" is one of those movies that wasn't supposed to have a sequel, yet it received multiple. Now, it's about to be rebooted by Blumhouse Productions and Lionsgate — something one of the original's stars, Joshua Leonard, has strong feelings about.
Following the announcement that a "Blair Witch" reboot is on the way, Leonard took to Instagram to express frustration over the situation. "I didn't know anything about it until a friend sent me a 'congrats' screenshot yesterday," he wrote, sharing an image of a press release with his face on it. Leonard added that he's especially irritated because he'd been struggling to get ahold of those at Lionsgate to put together a charity screening of the 1999 classic. Despite being a key player in the film's success, no one responded after a month of trying to make contact.
Continuing, Leonard shed some light on the many other issues those in possession of "The Blair Witch Project" have supposedly caused over the years, predominantly in the financial department.
Joshua Leonard's frustration is nothing new
As it turns out, the "Blair Witch Project" reboot isn't solely responsible for Joshua Leonard's frustration. As he claims in his Instagram post, there have been issues with the business side of the film since the very beginning. "BWP's OG distributor claimed to have released the most profitable independent film ever (bought for 1M, grossed 250M+), while internally they told us that they were actually losing money from marketing expenses," he said, noting that he and the "Blair Witch Project" team were even told that they might end up owing the original distributor, Artisan Entertainment.
Leonard detailed even more frustrating situations brought on by those tasked with handling directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez's horror flick. He and his castmates had to regain the rights to their names, as the studio filed trademarks on them since they were used in the film. Also, Hollywood insiders told the press that the actors were paid $4 million as a buyout of their ownership points when, in reality, they only made $300,000. "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," Leonard concluded.
Hopefully, Joshua Leonard and those at Lionsgate can find common ground in due time. Additionally, should the "Blair Witch Project" remake follow in its predecessor's footsteps and turn out to be a movie that becomes an unexpected blockbuster, those involved should receive fair compensation and the utmost respect.