Horror filmmaker and producer Jason Blum and his Blumhouse Productions are paying it forward to a film he said was influential to his career: 1999’s The Blair Witch Project.
Blumhouse and Lionsgate will collaborate on a new Blair Witch movie “as the first film in a multi-picture pact with Blumhouse reimagining horror classics from the Lionsgate library,” reads an announcement from Adam Fogelson, the head of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group.
Written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, the thriller centered on a small documentary crew that disappeared in the woods of Burkittsville, Maryland, while tracking rumors of a supernatural presence. According to the film, their camera equipment was the only trace of them to be found, and thanks to a creative guerrilla marketing campaign, first audiences believed the story was true.
The micro-budgeted “found footage” horror film went on to gross $248 million worldwide.
In the announcement, Blum said, “I’m very grateful to Adam and the team at Lionsgate for letting us play in their sandbox. 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.”
He added, “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.”
Blumhouse has collaborated with Universal Pictures to bring to theaters a string of horror hits, including Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Insidious, Sinister, Halloween, Five Nights at Freddy’s and M3GAN, as well as the Oscar winners Get Out and BlacKkKlansman.
To date, Blumhouse films have grossed nearly $6 billion at the worldwide box office.
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