At this summer’s San Diego Comic Con, the secret behind Adam Wingard‘s previously titled “The Woods” was let out of the bag —it will actually be a sequel to the found footage, contemporary horror classic “The Blair Witch Project.” It was definitely a big surprise for horror fans, and while I wonder how much cooler it would’ve been had audiences learned that reveal in cinemas, it’s a minor miracle that Lionsgate was able to keep the true nature of the movie secret for so long —and promoting it initially under that different title— before revealing it as the successor to “Blair Witch.” And it required ensuring everyone involved stayed mum, which couldn’t have been easy.
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“It really has been fascinating, all the CIA-level security that we have put around this project, from the very beginning,” Jason Constantine, President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions at Lionsgate told EW. “I’ve been at Lionsgate for 16 years, and I’ve had the privilege of working on a lot of movies that I love and are a lot of fun: horror movies, action movies and Oscar movies. But never have we ever set out to make a reboot movie, and keep it in total secrecy, with a brand that’s as well known to the public as this one. It’s incredible to think about how many people needed to know about it to bring this movie to life —and yet we ended up not having any leaks in that regard.”
“Blair Witch” will have its official World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival before opening on September 16th. Check out the new trailer below from Collider.
