The Blair Witch is back!
CinemaCon is in full swing out in Las Vegas, Nevada, and you know what that means: all of Hollywood’s biggest studios are trotting out their upcoming slates, showing off new trailers, and announcing all-new projects … and the folks at Blumhouse and Lionsgate just made a major announcement.
Says Bloody Disgusting:
“Twenty five years after the release of the original genre-changing classic, Lionsgate and Blumhouse announced out of CinemaCon today that they will partner on the development and production of a new The Blair Witch Project movie as the first film in a multi-picture pact with Blumhouse reimagining horror classics from the Lionsgate library.”
Yes, the Blair Witch franchise is coming back yet again! The last time we heard from that kooky, hiker-slaughtering crone was back in 2016, with Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch. Despite raking in over $45M worldwide on the back of a relatively meager $5M production budget, that entry in the series didn’t exactly bring the franchise back to life. Perhaps this one will.
Lionsgate’s Adam Fogelson had the following to say:
“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 are thrilled to kick this partnership off with a new vision for Blair Witch that will reintroduce this horror classic for a new generation. We couldn’t be more pleased to be working with them on this and other projects we look forward to revealing soon.”
Adds Blumhouse’s Jason Blum:
“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. 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.”
One thing worth underlining from all of the above: this is being pitched as a “reimagining” of the original Blair Witch Project, the first of several such reimaginings of horror titles from the Lionsgate library. That could mean just about anything, which is pretty exciting. We’ve seen this franchise twisted and pulled in a number of directions over the years (some more successful than others), and it’ll be interesting to see what a wholly reimagined version of the original looks like in 2025 (or whenever it arrives).
Exciting stuff for Blair Witch fans! Nothing further to report on this one at the moment, but rest assured we’ll be keeping you informed as further updates roll in. Stay tuned, folks!
