The original ‘Blair Witch Project’ team aren’t happy about the upcoming remake

nme.com:

Blair Witch Project team have called news of the upcoming remake “bittersweet”.Just days ago, it was announced that the seminal film was getting a reboot at CinemaCon.

Since the 1999 original, there have been two sequels in 2000 and 2016, making this remake the fourth movie in the series.Though 2016’s Blair Witch director Roy Lee is slated to return, Ben Rock (original production designer) has claimed that no one from the original film – including co-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez – were involved in any following movies, adding in comments to The Hollywood Reporter that news of the reboot is “bittersweet”.“I do think that what has happened twice now was that the original creators were overlooked, and other people were brought in, all of whom were good,” Rock said. “But neither one of the sequels connected with audiences the way they wanted it to connect.

And so it might at least be worth talking to some of the original creators.”Joshua Leonard, one of the original film’s three leads (alongside Heather Donahue and Michael C.

Williams), also expressed his frustrations about the reboot in a lengthy Instagram post: “I’m so proud of our little punk-rock movie, and I LOVE the fans who keep the flames burning,” he wrote. “But at this point, it’s 25 years of disrespect from the folks who’ve pocketed the lion’s share (pun intended) of the profits from OUR work, and that feels both icky and classless.”A post shared by Joshua Leonard (@thejoshualeonard)Original co-producer Mike Monello also shared his thoughts on X/Twitter, saying: “Radical idea: You could try putting this project in the hands of the original team that made the first one.