Lionsgate Reportedly Planning to Relaunch The Blair Witch Project

Lionsgate is looking at restarting the franchise kicked off by the landmark found footage horror film The Blair Witch Project. The Ankler’s Jeff Sneider reports that the studio is “ready to venture back into the woods again” for another film in the franchise that kicked off with the 1999 film.

The original film starred Heather Donohue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams as a trio of documentarians who go into the woods around Burkittsville, Maryland in 1994 to investigate a local legend of the Blair Witch. The trio get lost in the woods and descend into an downward spiral, influenced by the strange goings-on around them and the fact that the woods won’t seem to let them leave. The film wasn’t the first found-footage film, but it is credited with launching the genre and is one of the most profitable movies of all-time.

There have been two sequels to the original film. The first, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, was rushed into production by Artisan Entertainment and was both a critical flop and commercial disappointment. The second was Adam Wingarde’s 2016 film Blair Witch, which received better reviews than Book of Shadows and was more profitable although it was still considered by many to have a disappointing return.