The cast of iconic '90s horror 'The Blair Witch Project' are seeking compensation for their work on the movie. They have called out film studio Lionsgate for failing to meaningfully compensate them for their work.
Actor Joshua Leonard told Variety, "I don’t need Lionsgate to like me. I don’t care that they know that I think their behaviour has been reprehensible."
Leonard starred in the famous horror alongside Heather Donahue (now Rei Hance) and Michael C Williams. The film is presented as a documentary-style account of three student filmmakers who disappeared while hiking in the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland, USA, to film a documentary about a local legend, the Blair Witch. The footage supposedly recovered a year later forms the movie, showing the trio's descent into fear and confusion as they encounter disturbing occurrences in the woods.
The film is often credited with popularizing the found footage genre and was notable for its innovative marketing campaign with pretty much the whole world convinced it was real for some time.
'The Blair Witch Project' was made on a modest budget of around $60,000 and went on to gross nearly $250 million worldwide, making it one of the most successful independent films of all time. The actors each made $300,000 from a buyout of their ownership points on the film.
In April, Leonard, Hance and Williams released a public letter asking Lionsgate for compensation and "meaningful consultation" on any future projects that use their names or likenesses. It came after Lionsgate Motion Picture Group and Blumhouse announced plans to revive the franchise.
In a recent interview with Variety, Hance said that it comes down to a simple financial equation. “Is there value there or not? If there’s value, compensate us accordingly, and if there’s no value, then just stop using us.”
Williams added: "Everybody’s wondering what happened, and your wife is in the grocery line and she can’t pay because a check bounced,” he said. "You’re in the most successful independent movie of all time, and you can’t take care of your loved ones."
Leonard wrote on Facebook: "At this point, it’s 25 years of disrespect from the folks who’ve pocketed the lion’s share (pun intended) of the profits from OUR work, and that feels both icky and classless."
The actors have called on Lionsgate to provide them with retroactive and future residual payments "equivalent to the sum that would’ve been allotted through SAG-AFTRA, had we had proper union or legal representation when the film was made."
