Original ‘Blair Witch Project’ cast say they got fruit baskets to mark film earning $100 million at domestic box office
The original ‘Blair Witch Project’ cast say they each got a fruit basket to commemorate the film earning $100 million at the domestic box office.
Joshua Leonard, 48, one of the three actors who starred in the 1999 found-footage horror phenomenon – which made almost $250 million at the global box office on a budget of around $200,000 to $750,000 – recently hit out over their lack of residual payments for the movie in an open letter signed by himself and his former ‘BWP’ co-stars Rei Hance (also known as Heather Donahue) and Michael Williams to Facebook on 21 April.
In a new interview with Variety, the trio of stars have now said Artisan Entertainment, which acquired writer-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s film after its Sundance Film Festival premiere for $1.1 million, sent each of them a fruit basket to commemorate the film earning $100 million at the domestic box office.
Rei, 49, said: “That was when it became clear that, wow, we were not going to get anything.
“We were being cut out of something that we were intimately involved with creating.”
Michael, 50, added: “Giant corporations don’t care that this happens to young artists. “It’s bulls***.
“And that’s got to change somehow.”
The actors also said they have endured “25 years of disrespect” and financially “made 300k... and NEVER saw another dime”.
They previously said they would like to retain “meaningful consultation” on “any” future project in the ‘BWP’ series and a yearly $60,000 grant for Lionsgate to pay aspiring filmmakers to make their first feature-length movie.
The trio of actors said in an open letter published in April: “Our film has now been rebooted twice, both times were a disappointment from a fan/box office/critical perspective.
“Neither of these films were made with significant creative input from the original team.
“As the insiders who created the Blair Witch and have been listening to what fans love and want for 25 years, we’re your single greatest, yet thus-far unutilized secret-weapon!”
The open letter came after Lionsgate and the Blumhouse studio jointly announced development of a new ‘Blair Witch’ movie.
