Original crew on being left out of the new film

The team behind the original 1999 film The Blair Witch Project was unaware of plans for a new film in the horror franchise until it was announced during Lionsgate's CinemaCon presentation last week. But the filmmakers' frustration with their lack of involvement in the future of the series has been building for years.

“Honestly, it’s bittersweet,” says Ben Rock, production designer for the hit 1999 film. The Hollywood Reporter about the planned reboot. He notes that no one from his film, including co-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, was significantly involved in the 2000 sequel, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2or the 2016 follow-up. Rock hopes that will change for the current project in the works by Lionsgate and Blumhouse, but so far no one from the 1999 film has been contacted or given a chance to pitch their project , he said.

“I think what's happened twice now is that the original creators were overlooked and other people were brought in who were all good,” Rock says, referring to the Joe sequel Berlinger in 2000 and that of Adam Wingard in 2016. Blair Witch. “But none of the sequels touched the audience the way they wanted. And so it might at least be worth talking to some of the original creators.

Rock was part of the original film crew for share reactions on social networks to the news of the latest project. Among those who spoke out was Mike Monello, a co-producer of the first film who helped design the website, saying the horrors in the film were real and the people who appeared in it had disappeared. “Radical idea: you could try giving this project to the original team that did the first one”, Monello job, tagging Jason Blum with Lionsgate and Blumhouse. “You know, the team that actually has an entire franchise plans to reinvent what a Blair Witch the film could be?

Additionally, Joshua Leonard, one of the film's three leads (alongside Heather Donahue and Michael C. Williams), posted on Instagram about his own frustrations. He heard about the planned new film from a friend who sent him a screenshot of a media report using a still of Leonard 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 wrote. “But at this point, it represents 25 years of disrespect from those who pocketed the lion's share (pun intended) of the profits from OUR work, and it seems both disgusting and classless.”

The Blair Witch Project was made for a modest $35,000 (before marketing costs) and was an instant sensation when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1999. Artisan Entertainment purchased the film and released it theatrically in June. It became a summer phenomenon on its way to becoming one of the top 10 highest-grossing titles of the year, not to mention one of the highest-grossing films ever made.

Rock met his directors at college and recalls earning $300 a week for his work on The Blair Witch Project, although it also received backend points. Rock – who worked on creating the film's mythology and wrote a special promoting the film for the Sci Fi cable TV channel, in addition to his production design duties – has only fond memories of his experience with this one. Artisan later hired him as a consultant on the franchise ahead of the 2000 film, released a little over a year after the first hit theaters, but he did not work on the sequel itself. Sánchez, who has recently worked as a television director on projects such as Yellow jackets And Star Trek: Strange New Worldsand Myrick, who directed the upcoming documentary Triple 7have nominal executive producer credits on both sequels.

“I understand that you can be too close to something, and maybe an outside perspective is helpful, but overall it didn't work,” Rock says of Book of Shadows. “They didn’t make the move they wanted to make.” He emphasizes that he has a lot of respect for Blumhouse and adds, “I hope Blumhouse doesn't say, 'Hey, let's restart this without talking to anyone.' [from the first one].' But they didn't talk to any of us.

THR has contacted Lionsgate and Blumhouse for comment.

Rock recalls that in the 2000s, Myrick and Sánchez hoped to work on a period piece set in the 1700s as a sequel to their film before the development process ultimately shut down. Rock isn't sure another modern film with shaky footage would be the best way to move the franchise forward, which is why he thinks his film's creative team would be best suited to figure out what made it work his film.

“I don’t know how we can top what we’ve done,” he said. “But I care about the franchise, so whoever does it, I hope they handle it carefully.”