By MICHAEL GINGOLD
It’s the first in a deal between the two horror specialists to reimagine fright classics.
Variety reports that producer Jason Blum and his Blumhouse company will bring a new take on THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT to the screen. It’ll be the first film in that franchise, launched by the 1999 microbudget hit, since BLAIR WITCH back in 2016. Roy Lee, another reboot specialist who produced the latter film, is teaming with Blumhouse and Lionsgate on the upcoming movie.
The announcement was made at the CinemaCon theater trade event in Las Vegas, and Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson called the film a “new vision for BLAIR WITCH that will reintroduce this horror classic for a new generation. I have been incredibly fortunate to work with Jason many times over the years. We forged a strong relationship on THE PURGE when I was at Universal, and we launched STX with his film THE GIFT. There is no one better at this genre than the team at Blumhouse. We couldn’t be more pleased to be working with them on this and other projects we look forward to revealing soon.”
“I’m very grateful to Adam and the team at Lionsgate for letting us play in their sandbox,” Blum says. “I’m a huge admirer of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, which brought the idea of found footage horror to mainstream audiences and became a true cultural phenomenon. I don’t think there would have been a PARANORMAL ACTIVITY had there not first been a BLAIR WITCH, so this feels like a truly special opportunity and I’m excited to see where it leads.” The idea is for the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT redux to launch a series of new takes on horror favorites, and we’ll keep you posted on how those proceed.
