"It was really a film that everyone became instantly fascinated by and it emboldened filmmakers and studios to believe that if you had the right concept and a great marketing campaign, it did not matter what the budget of the movie was."ĭonahue, Williams and Leonard signed on to play the ill-fated characters of the same names in the mock-documentary back in October 1997 with Haxan Films, the company started by the unknown writers and directors of "The Blair Witch Project." The venture proved to be an exercise in method acting unlike anything Stanislavsky likely imagined.Ībout a week shy of Halloween, directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez dropped Donahue, Williams and Leonard off in a wooded patch of Maryland state park. "It had a huge impact," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Company, which tracks box office activity. Without a script and a budget of $35,000, two unknown filmmakers turned shaky home video into a blockbuster that raked in over $140 million domestically and reigned as the highest grossing independent film of all time until "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" surpassed it recently.Ī savvy Web marketing campaign turned many moviegoers into believers in the film's eerie premise that it was a documentary pieced together from the recovered footage of three student filmmakers who disappeared in the Maryland woods searching for a deadly 200-year-old witch.
"The Blair Witch Project" cast a spell on movie goers unlike anything before or since. While this sequel squabble is rather unique, allegations of image splicing and false advertising have been made before by figures like Bill Clinton and Kevin Costner. In May, a judge denied Artisan's motion to have the suit dismissed, setting the stage for this Hollywood-style witch trial. Unknowns-turned-cult stars Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and Joshua Leonard filed a complaint in November 2000 seeking over $4 million each for the damage they say the unauthorized references did to their burgeoning screen careers. There will be no trips to the gallows this time, but the three stars of the 1999 low-budget blockbuster "The Blair Witch Project" are heading to court, claiming that the film's distributor Artisan Entertainment used their names and likenesses without permission in connection with the film's sequel, "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2." (Court TV) - Three centuries after the proceedings at Salem, a new witch trial is brewing.
0 kommentar(er)
