The film that revolutionized the found-footage, The Blair Witch Project of Lionsgateis preparing to be revived on the big screen with a new installment, twenty-five years after its original release in theaters in 1999.
According to reports from Variety, Lionsgate and Blumhouse announced that they will be partnering to develop and produce a new film Blair Witch Project in what will become the first film in a multi-picture pact with Blumhouse that reinvents horror classics from Lionsgate's library.
The announcement was made this day at CinemaCon 2024, by Adam Fogelson, president of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, and Jason Blumfounder and CEO of Blumhouse.
For those who are not familiar with Blumhouse's specialty, we tell you that it is a production company pioneer of a production model of films with micro or low budget and high performance at the box office. Under this proposal they have created sagas such as Paranormal Activity –which was the starting engine for the company–, The Purge, Insidious, Sinister, Creep, Ouija, Unfriended, Happy Death Day, commercial and/or critical successes such as Get Out, Upgrade, The Gift, The Belko Experiment, Split, Glass, the trilogy Halloween, BlacKkKlansman, Us, The Huntel remake The Invisible Man, M3GAN, Five Nights at Freddy’sand many more.
Blumhouse productions accumulate close to $6 billion dollars in the global box office.
For its part, The Blair Witch Project (1999) had such a low budget – and such an effective marketing campaign – that it became one of the most lucrative films in history ($60,000 budget, $248 million global gross).
The most recent collaboration between Blumhouse and Lionsgate is the horror thriller Imaginaryin theaters around the world right now.
Plot details for the reboot have not been revealed, but Lionsgate Motion Picture Group president Fogelson referred to the film as a “new take on Blair Witch that will reintroduce this horror classic to a new generation.”
The original 1999 film, The Blair Witch Project, popularized the found footage narrative technique in horror films. Its big screen premiere 25 years ago turned to genre cinema, effectively introducing found footage, a technique that even today is used to inject a sense of realism to the events portrayed on screen.
The Blair Witch Project, Written and directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, it follows three film students who disappear after entering a Maryland forest to film a documentary about the local legend of the Blair Witch, leaving behind only their recordings.
The success was such that the sequels were made. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2released in 2000, and Blair Witch of the year 2016. None of them as successful as the original. In 2019, a video game developed in the universe of this Witch was launched. Lionsgate currently operates an escape room in Las Vegas themed to the film, called Escape Blair Witch.
In April 2022, rumors about Lionsgate's future plans to revive its franchise were already sounding strong.
Blum will produce the new version alongside Roy Lee, producer of the reboot Blair Witch (2016).
Fogelson said in a statement to the media:
“I have been incredibly fortunate to work with Jason many times over the years. We forged a strong relationship on 'The Purge' when he was at Universal and launched STX with his film 'The Gift'. There is no one better in this genre than the team at Blumhouse. “We couldn’t be happier to be working with them on this and other projects that we hope to reveal soon.”
Blum added:
“I am very grateful to Adam and the team at Lionsgate for allowing us to play in their sandbox. I'm a big fan of 'The Blair Witch Project', which brought the idea of found footage horror to the mainstream and became a true cultural phenomenon. “I don't think there would have been a 'Paranormal Activity' if there hadn't been a 'Blair Witch' first, so this seems like a truly special opportunity and I'm excited to see where it leads.”
Source: https://cine3.com/habra-una-nueva-the-blair-witch-project-con-lionsgate-y-blumhouse/
