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When the now iconic 1999 film The Blair Witch Project, which reportedly cost somewhere around $750,000 to make, hit the magic milestone of earning $USD100 million at the box office, the three stars of the movie thought they were finally going to get a piece of the action.
Instead, the studio sent them fruit baskets.
It was another indignity meted out to actors Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard who starred as the three film students who vanished after heading into a creepy forest to document the myth of the Blair Witch.
The movie, which was initially marketed as a “true story”, was of their “found footage” .
After a successful run at the Sundance Film Festival, The Blair Witch Project became a cultural phenomenon.
It spawned conspiracy theories, was imitated and parodied and should have catapulted its stars, who made just $750 a week on the film, to fame after it made close to $400 million at the box office worldwide. Instead, they got a pittance and couldn’t even receive the critical accolades that should have come their way.
Now as the news comes that the movie is set for a reboot, they’ve decided to speak out about their treatment.
The Blair Witch Project controversy
According to Variety, the film’s writer-directors, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, taught them how to operate the cameras and sound equipment, then dropped them in a forest, with just a few prompts.
What we see in the film is Donahue, Williams and Leonard improvising the entire thing.
As their real names were used, the actors were not allowed to do interviews or take on other work as viewers were led to believe they were either dead or still missing, as per the plot.
“We were being cut out of something that we were intimately involved with creating,” Donahue told Variety. “That was when it became clear that, wow, we were not going to get anything.”
It came as a huge shock to them when Lionsgate chief Adam Fogelson announced at CinemaCon in April that the studio was creating a Blair Witch Project reboot.
He said they would “reintroduce this horror classic for a new generation”.
It was a kick in the guts, considering they’d once again be thrust into the spotlight for nostalgia’s sake, but without being financially compensated – again.
“I actually was looking forward to the 25th anniversary,” Donahue admitted. “We had booked a couple of conventions. It’s nice to hear nice things from the fans and see the guys … And then – boom – comes this announcement, and it’s like, motherf–kers.”
That’s when the three actors wrote an open letter to Lionsgate requesting “meaningful consultation” on the project, and any other Blair Witch projects in the future.
The letter also requested retroactive and future residual payments for the movie “equivalent to the sum that would’ve been allotted through SAG-AFTRA, had we had proper union or legal representation when the film was made”.
SAG-AFTRA has stepped in, too. They’re now gunning for the stars to be fairly compensated.
“I’m embarrassed that I let this happen to me,” Williams added, through tears. “You’ve got to put that stuff away … your wife is in the grocery line and she can’t pay because a check bounced. You’re in the most successful independent movie of all time, and you can’t take care of your loved ones.”
Williams isn’t sure things will change for other artists working the independent film circuit.
“Giant corporations don’t care that this happens to young artists. It’s bulls–t. And that’s got to change somehow,” he said.
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Want to re-watch the classic? Rent The Blair Witch Project from Prime Video.
