New "Blair Witch Project" Movie Announced
 

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/...project-movie/

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.

The announcement was made today by Adam Fogelson, chair, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, and Jason Blum, founder and CEO of Blumhouse.

Based at Universal Pictures, where it has a first look deal, Blumhouse is the gold standard in the horror space, generating blockbuster results from a string of modestly-budgeted films including the Paranormal Activity franchise, Insidious, The Purge, Sinister, Halloween, Five Nights at Freddy’s and M3GAN along with award winners Get Out and BlacKkKlansman. Blumhouse films have grossed nearly $6 billion at the worldwide box office.

Blum will team with producer Roy Lee on the new Blair Witch Project movie; Lee previously produced the 2016 film Blair Witch, the most recent installment in the franchise.

“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,” said Fogelson. “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.”

“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,” said Blum. “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.”

Found footage masterpiece The Blair Witch Project changed the game back in 1999, subsequently spawning its own sprawling universe of media, including official follow-up films in 2000 and 2016 as well as multiple books and video games that have deepened the lore.

Aren't these films really slow moving and boring?

After you watch the first Blair Witch, you understand the entire franchise. When it first came out, people thought it was actually real until the main characters were talking to the people waiting in line to see it. Kind of a short sighted move but that's how people found out it wasn't real. Before that, it was a nationwide sensation.

No.
No, they didn't.
I'm sure you could probably find someone somewhere who said they believed it was real, in the same way as you can find probably find people who will say they think skibidi toilet is real, but even at the time it was clearly an attempt at viral marketing which people were happy to play along with.

There is a news station report or documentary about the film out there that showed the actors of the movie asking people waiting in line for it questions about the movie. I watched it myself so I'm sure someone else can confirm if that's what you were denying. That's how I found out it wasn't real. The people waiting in line found out before seeing the movie. Which was strange marketing if you ask me.

Yeah, that was the marketing schtick for the movie at the time.
It had a (quite good) website from very early on and there was a (less good) promotional mockumentary made nearer the release time.
It was one of the first films to really try to use viral internet marketing. They also tried stunts like not using the cast for promo (and messing around with the imdb page) - which worked really well to build hype for it, but that was also a very new thing so that in and of itself made it newsworthy.

It's not like people were stumbling across it on late night TV with no context whilst drunk - in which case fair enough.
In order to be coming out of a movie theatre not knowing it was fictional you'd have had to have got into a showing having missed all the promotion, the posters, the reviews, the news stories, the endless parodies (mostly of of the trailer), the interview with one of the cast members and then walked out before the credits get past the first few names (and have little to no judgement).