Happy Halloween, movie freaks everywhere! Here’s something to ponder on this ghostly day. We’ve heard before that The Blair Witch Project creators, writers/directors Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick want a third installment but by going back and seeing what happened directly after the first film finished. At that time, it would have a video element, but they’re not planning it to be a first person hand-held movie. In a conversation with Sanchez, via thestar, we now know that they’ve started working on the story and the original cast members would return but it all depends on the studio that owns the rights, read the excerpt after the jump…
They’re now at the point where they’re ready to do a Blair Witch 3, once again sharing writing and directing. They’d pick up from where the original left off, pretending Blair Witch 2 never happened. The duo recently went on a drive through their original Blair Witch haunts, about a half hour from Sánchez’s Maryland home, looking for inspiration.
They’ve worked up a treatment for a new story, which would involve original cast members Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams, albeit in smaller roles.
“We’re at the step where we’re about to pitch to Lionsgate, which owns the movie rights now. It’s pretty much up to them. They can completely squash it or greenlight it.”
But neither Sánchez nor Myrick are interested in just photocopying what they did with Blair Witch, which deserves its status as a modern horror classic. It still chills as effectively as ever, exploiting the power of suggestion to the max.
Sánchez wants to use a technique he calls “mixed first-person,” which would mean less reliance on the Blair Witch innovation – now a cinematic cliché – of having the protagonists speak directly into their fidgety cameras.
Sanchez also said he’s a bit jealous of the success of the current box office phenomenon Paranormal Activity, it’s something that he felt that could’ve done as well and that motivated him to go back and revisit Blair Witch which back in 1999 shot Sanchez and Myric to stardom and fortune, the shakycam movie earned $250 Million worldwide.
