New “Blair Witch Project” Sequel Talk

Ahh, the original shaky-cam movie.

ComingSoon directs us to an article in the Toronto Star, in which Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick, creators of “The Blair Witch Project,” say they are writing a sequel and are ready to pitch it to Lionsgate, the studio that owns the rights to any sequels.

And yes, we know, there WAS a sequel to “Blair Witch”–”Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2.” Sanchez and Myrick wrote that one, but passed on the chance to direct. They are disavowing it and say there new film would pick up where the first film left off. They would including small parts for the actors from the original film (two of the three, Heather Donahue and Michael C. Williams have worked on and off in small projects and TV episodes, but Joshua Leonard has worked pretty steadily).

(Here I might add that reaction to “Book of Shadows” is wildly divided–some people think it was a piece of jumbled junk that didn’t live up to the original, while others think it was a genuinely good horror film that could stand on its own and not rely on a gimmick.)

Needless to say, this new interest in picking up the “Blair Witch” thread has been sparked in Sanchez and Myrick by the success of “Paranormal Activity,” which also follows a similar pseudo-documentary style and also benefited from a viral, web-based marketing campaign. Sanchez had a lot to say about that.

“I wouldn’t be completely honest with you if I said I wasn’t jealous of Paranormal Activity,” Sánchez says.

“I’m happy for the guy … but at the same time, there’s the feeling that, man, I could have done this. It would have been different and might not have been as good. But I know how to make these films. To me it’s like, man, maybe I should go back and kind of milk this one more time.”

He says he won’t, though, but plans 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.”

Speaking of this cliche, Sanchez said he laughed during “Cloverfield,” because the characters never dropped their cameras, even when being chased by a monster. But he liked the mix of documentary and conventional film that he saw in this summer’s “District 9.”

Sánchez is currently working on another low budget horror film titled “Possessed.” In it, he promises will “show things that have not been seen before. Hopefully audiences will dig it.”

Doesn’t everyone hope audiences will dig it?