‘Blair Witch’ actor slams ‘25 years of disrespect’ as new reboot is announced
It was a bit witchy of them.
The original production team behind the 1999 film “The Blair Witch Project” revealed Monday that they’ve not been asked to return to the most recent reboot of the franchise.
“It’s bittersweet, honestly,” production designer Ben Rock told the Hollywood Reporter after learning of the new installment during CinemaCon last week.
According to Rock, 56, this is not the first time that the production team has been ignored when it came to revamping the thriller series.
Rock noted that no one from the film — including co-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez — were involved in the 2000 sequel “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2,” the 2016 follow-up nor the reboot that was announced last week, from production companies Blumhouse and Lionsgate.
Additionally, Rock noted that since the first film’s wild success, things have been rocky between the studio and the team.
“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,” Rock said. “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.”
“I understand that you can be too close to something, and maybe an outside perspective is helpful, but in aggregate, it didn’t work,” he continued. “They didn’t make the hit that they wanted to make. 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.”
“I don’t know how you outdo what we did. But I care about the franchise, so whoever does it, I hope they handle it with care,” he concluded.
The Post reached out to Lionsgate and Blumhouse for comment.
Rock’s frustrations were also echoed by Mike Monello, who served as co-producer for the horror flick.
“Radical idea: You could try putting this project in the hands of the original team that made the first one,” Monello posted online. “You know, the team that actually has an entire franchise plan to reinvent what a ‘Blair Witch’ movie could be?”
Things further escalated when one of the original cast members, Joshua Leonard, posted about his own frustrations with the franchise on Instagram.
“I’m so proud of our little punk-rock movie, and I LOVE the fans who keep the flames burning,” Leonard, 48, wrote. “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.”
The original film is presented as found footage recorded by Joshua, Heather and Michael (played by Leonard, Heather Donahue and Michael C. Williams), three college students who take to the woods try to catch a glimpse of the mysterious Blair Witch.
Myrick and Sánchez’s film premiered at Sundance in 1999, became a summer blockbuster and is now one of the most profitable films ever made.
In an effort to market the film, the movie’s team designed several missing-persons posters featuring the three-person cast and even developed a website — which is now defunct — that hosted several videos of actors pretending to be law enforcement giving testimony about their casework.
No release date or plot details have been given about the new film.
