The stars of The Blair Witch Project have called for more compensation for their work in the original film, as well as “meaningful consultation” on any reboots and sequels, after it was announced that the horror franchise is being revived yet again.
On Saturday, actors Rei Hance (formerly known as Heather Donahue), Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams issued an open letter to Lionsgate, the studio that now owns the Blair Witch franchise.
The letter, published on Leonard’s Facebook page, called for “retroactive and future residual payments” for the three actors for their work in the 1999 film, “equivalent to the sum that would’ve been allotted through [actors’ union] Sag-Aftra”, and say they did not have “proper union or legal representation when the film was made”.
The actors also asked for creative input in the Blair Witch franchise, which to date has spawned two more films, multiple novels, comic books, a video game series and an upcoming revival that Lionsgate announced this month, in collaboration with popular horror studio Blumhouse.
“Our film has now been rebooted twice, both times were a disappointment,” the open letter reads. “As the insiders who created the Blair Witch … we’re your single greatest, yet thus-far unutilized secret-weapon!”
The third and final request in the letter was the development of an annual US$60,000 (A$93,000) grant for “an unknown/aspiring genre filmmaker to assist in making their first feature film”.
The sum of the grant reflects the initial budget of the 1999 film, which went on to make more than $248m at the worldwide box office.
Hance, Leonard, and Williams were unknowns during the making of The Blair Witch Project, which was an independent film directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. The actors improvised much of the dialogue and participated in film marketing stunts, including appearing on missing persons posters to blur the lines between fiction and reality.
The film’s IMDb page listed the actors as “missing, presumed dead” around the film’s release.
The Blair Witch Project reignited the found-footage genre when studio Artisan Entertainment bought distribution rights for $1m. Artisan Entertainment was acquired by Lionsgate in 2003.
In an Instagram post following Lionsgate’s announcement of a Blair Witch revival earlier this month, Leonard said he and his fellow two stars were paid $300,000 each for a full buy-out of their ownership over the original film.
“I’m so proud of our little punk-rock movie,” Leonard wrote at the time. “But at this point, it’s 25 years of disrespect from the folks who’ve pocketed the lion’s share … of the profits from our work, and that feels both icky and classless.”
The actors’ letter was supported by an accompanying statement from directors Myrick and Sánchez, as well as the film’s producer.
“As the literal faces of what has become a franchise, [the actors’] likenesses, voices and real names are inseparably tied to The Blair Witch Project,” they wrote. “We celebrate our film’s legacy, and equally, we believe the actors deserve to be celebrated for their enduring association with the franchise.”
Jason Blum, the chief executive of Blumhouse, has previously spoken of Blair Witch’s influence on his studio’s films, saying: “I don’t think there would have been a Paranormal Activity had there not first been a Blair Witch.”
Lionsgate has declined to comment on the open letter.
