As we in close proximity to the 25th anniversary of the unique The Blair Witch Challenge, the film’s three actors are asking for a tiny piece of the spooky pie they helped bake. Rei Hance (who appeared in the film as Heather Donahue), Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams are asking for retroactive residual payments from Lionsgate, who is eyeing a prospective reboot with Blumhouse. They also want “Meaningful consultation” on even more work Blair Witch-primarily based tasks, and a $60,000 grant to be awarded to “an unknown/aspiring style filmmaker to aid in making their initial feature movie.” A list of requests and a letter of guidance from the film’s administrators and producers was posted on Leonard’s Facebook web site.
Hance, Leonard, and Williams improvised considerably of The Blair Witch Project, which was produced on a budget of $60,000 (therefore the grant). They all used their actual initial names in the film, and shot most of the footage. The movie was purchased by Artisan Enjoyment for $1 million, after which the actors had been compensated a $300,000 buyout of their possession points on the film. They have been also stated as “missing, presumed dead” on IMDb. “Being useless? How did impact my career? Adversely,” Hance informed Vice in 2016. The actors had been not SAG-AFTRA at the time of filming, and they ask for payment “equivalent to the sum that would’ve been allotted through SAG-AFTRA, had we experienced appropriate union or authorized illustration when the movie was made.”
A collective assertion of support was supplied by initial Blair Witch administrators and producers Eduardo Sanchez, Dan Myrick, Gregg Hale, Robin Cowie, and Michael Monello. “While we, the primary filmmakers, regard Lionsgate’s ideal to monetize the intellectual assets as it sees in good shape, we need to spotlight the substantial contributions of the original cast,” it reads. “As the literal faces of what has grow to be a franchise, their likenesses, voices, and authentic names are inseparably tied to The Blair Witch Task.”
