This year The BLAIR WITCH PROJECT celebrates it’s tenth anniversary. To pay homage, Bloody-Disgusting brought you a retrospective of the influence BLAIR had on the industry. This week we spoke to co-directors Ed Sanchez and Dan Myrick to get their thoughts on BLAIR’s influence. We’ll have that story for you next week, but today we wanted to bring you up to speed on the latest BLAIR WITCH sequel news. I know, I know, we’ve been hearing about a supposed sequel all decade, but this time it does sound like Sanchez and Myrick are closer than ever, at least to finally getting a straight answer out of Lionsgate.
“Between Dan and me and the Haxan guys that did the original BLAIR WITCH, we are about as far along on a sequel idea as we’ve ever been,” Sanchez told Bloody-Disgusting. “This is the first idea that Dan and I have really latched onto that we thought, `It would be cool.’ It’s a completely different kind of film, but we think it’s in the original spirit of the first one.”

“In the next couple of weeks, something should happen; either a yes or a no or a maybe,” Sanchez continues with a laugh. “I don’t know how we’re going to release the story or whatever, but something’s probably going to happen by the end of the year where we’ll either say, `No, it’s not going to happen’ or hopefully, `Yes, it’s gonna happen.’ But the news is coming soon.”

“We’ve been working on an idea and it’s a concept that we like a lot,” adds Myrick. “I can’t say anything about it now. Ed and I feel that the timing is right and enough time has gone by that the backlash to BLAIR WITCH has kind of subsided and a new generation of kids are out to embrace a BLAIR WITCH franchise on the merits of the movie itself rather than it trying to live up or be what the first film was, which it never will be. Our hope is that the sequel will stay within the mythology that we created in the first film and stand on its own two feet; just be a good, cool, thoughtful scary movie that resurrects a franchise that we feel very close to. Hopefully Lionsgate will agree and want to move forward on it.”

The duo is tight-lipped as to the specifics of what this BLAIR sequel would be about except to say that it will be a sequel rather than the long-rumored prequel. “Everybody that I’ve talked to wants the prequel, that story of the witch,” says Sanchez. “We still want to make that, but the powers that be will not let that happen right now. If we do the sequel and it makes some money and there’s motivation to do another one, then maybe we can push the prequel a little bit.”

“There’s a lot of episodes throughout the history of BLAIR WITCH and even stuff that could be portrayed in the future that you could explore,” says Myrick. “This is the devil’s triangle in the woods, so anything can happen. If it’s approached in the right way and the audience is given due credit for being thinking individuals, then this could be a cool franchise that delves into a lot of the mythology that has been swirling around this phenomena for years.”

In the meantime, Sanchez is working on a new project called POSSESSION with writing partner Jamie Nash and promoting SEVENTH MOON, which hits DVD and Blu-ray on October 6th and stars Amy Smart. “It’s about this honeymooning couple that goes to China during this time called the seventh lunar month,” says Sanchez. “[It’s] when the mysterious freaky kind of spiritual things happen in China. The legend is that Buddha opens up the gates of hell and all the spirits come out for one night. The couple is actually out on that night and bad things start to happen. It’s a creepy film that’s gotten some really good reaction. Unfortunately we couldn’t get any theatrical out of it, but we’re getting a really good Blu-ray and DVD release from Ghost House Pictures, Raimi’s company. We’re looking forward to getting it out there.”

Stay tuned next week for our continuing salute to BLAIR’s tenth anniversary when co-directors Ed Sanchez and Dan Myrick discuss the films influenced by the famous witch.