Caffeinated Clint
So the cat is out of the bag!
Lionsgate’s “The Woods”, the next film from “You’re Next” duo Adam Wingard (director) and Simon Barret (writer), is actually the long-awaited third “Blair Witch” movie!
All was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con where the film – more a direct sequel to the 1999 classic than the shitty Fox-produced sequel “Book of Shadows” – played to an unsuspecting, soon super-excited audience. Reactions are overwhelmingly positive with online critics tweeting up a storm about how frightening and brilliant the secret sequel is.
The film has been in the works since about 2013 when Lionsgate approached Wingard and Barret about putting together a direct sequel to the ’90s classic – one that would follow Heather’s (Heather Donahue) brother headed back into ‘Blair Witch’ terrain to try and find out what happened to his sister, who disappeared all those years ago in the spooky woods.
“It really has been fascinating, all the CIA-level security that we have put around this project, from the very beginning,” Jason Constantine, President, Acquisitions and Co-Productions, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, who played a lead role in developing the film, tells EW. “I’ve been at Lionsgate for 16 years, and I’ve had the privilege of working on a lot of movies that I love, and are a lot of fun: horror movies, and action movies, and Oscar movies. But never have we ever set out to make a reboot movie, and keep it in total secrecy, with a brand that’s as well known to the public as this one. It’s incredible to think about how many people needed to know about it to bring this movie to life — and yet we ended up not having any leaks in that regard.”
Constantine said he’d long wanted to resurrect the brand.
“I always felt this was a brand that, if done correctly, would be a great horror movie to bring back to audiences,” says Constantine. “However, you had to do it right or not at all. We explored a couple different avenues but I always felt it really came down to having the right creative take. It had to be the right filmmaking team.”
Surprisingly, the actors, crew, studio and anyone even remotely interested in “The Woods” was able to keep the ruse under wraps until today. For three years or so, the film has only been referred to and marketed as “The Woods”. Two months out from release, we learn it’s the long-proposed “Blair Witch 3” that original creators Dan Myrick and Ed Sanchez had been hoping to get off the ground all these years (While the original duo don’t spearhead the film, it’s believed they have given their blessing to the new film and really enjoyed the result.)
“We live in an age where it’s harder and harder for a movie to be a genuine surprise for an audience, because of the internet, because of Twitter, because of all the discussions that can happen online,” says the Lionsgate executive. “Sometimes, you want to embrace that for a movie, but we really felt, on this film, that it would be great if audiences could be genuinely surprised.”
Sad they couldn’t keep it under wraps until opening day then. But kudos for keeping it a secret for this long!
Behold the trailer for “Blair Witch”, out this September!
