The new “Blair Witch” movie is bringing in some familiar faces.
Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams, who starred in “The Blair Witch Project” in 1999, as well as original directors Eduardo Sánchez, Daniel Myrick and Gregg Hale, who will serve as executive producers on the new “Blair Witch” film for Lionsgate and Blumhouse-Atomic Monster. (Curiously, there is no mention of Heather Donahue, who now goes by Rei Hance, another of the original movie’s stars.)
This new “Blair Witch Project” will be directed by Dylan Clark, working from a script by Chris Devlin and Clark. The project was first announced at CinemaCon in 2024 as part of a multi-film deal that would see Blumhouse reimagining several as-yet undisclosed Lionsgate horror classics.
Atomic Monster’s James Wan and Blumhouse’s Jason Blum will team with producer Roy Lee to produce the new film. Adam Hendricks and Greg Gilreath are producing for Divide/Conquer. Steven Schneider is an executive producer. Michael Clear and Judson Scott are executive producing for Atomic Monster, with Alayna Glasthal overseeing for the company. Scott O’Brien and Pavan Kalidindi are overseeing the project for Lionsgate. Phil Strina negotiated the deal on behalf of the studio.
After the 2024 announcement, Leonard voiced public dissatisfaction with the fact that the original stars, who were just as key to the filmmaking process as anyone else given the film’s heavy use of improvisational dialogue, were not involved in subsequent “Blair Witch” films. The original film made more than $248 million on a budget of roughly $500,000 and launched an entire wave of found-footage horror movies.
In 2000, Lionsgate released “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2,” directed by documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger, which adopted a more traditional narrative format and didn’t involve any of the original cast members or filmmakers. It was a hit (making nearly $50 million on a budget of $15 million) but far from the cultural phenomenon of the original film. “Blair Witch,” which was originally marketed as an unrelated movie called “The Woods,” was released in 2016 and expanded the original movie’s mythology considerably. It made more than $45 million on a budget of just $5 million.
Additionally, the franchise inspired spinoff novels, comic books and video games. There is also Escape Blair Witch, an escape room experience that Lionsgate operates in Las Vegas.
