Nearly two decades ago, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez unleashed their found footage film, The Blair Witch Project, and it quickly became one of the most successful independent movies of all time. While the subsequent sequels have failed to recapture that lightning in a bottle, Lionsgate is charting a new course for the franchise by bringing the Blair Witch to TV.
According to Deadline, the Blair Witch television series is one of several projects under Lionsgate’s new digital initiative, Studio L. The initial report doesn’t state who is developing the new Blair Witch show, but Sánchez talked about the possibility of a TV series last year during his appearance on the Diminishing Returns podcast. More specifically, he mentioned a desire to “bring in a whole bunch of interesting directors to direct episodes.â€
The big question is whether the Blair Witch can work for television when neither Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 nor the more recent Blair Witch sequel (which we liked) managed to find a large audience. The original movie had a memorable gimmick that made some viewers buy into the possibility that the footage was real. That’s a trick that’s not going to work again in any format.
That said, it’s not impossible for a Blair Witch TV show to carve out its own place, especially if the creative team actually explores the mythology of the Blair Witch. The legend was supposedly linked to a woman named Elly Kedward, who was killed in 1785 for practicing witchcraft. Whether Kedward is truly the creature behind the multiple disappearances remains to be seen. But there’s something out there, and that’s a mystery that’s still worth exploring.
Are you intrigued by the potential Blair Witch television show? Let us know in the comment section below!
Images: Lionsgate
More from the nerdosphere!
- Could Star Wars Resistence be a sequel trilogy-era series?
- Joss Whedon exits DC’s Batgirl movie because he couldn’t think of a story
- Listen to Edgar Wright’s favorite movie songs
