Good article from the Times about how nobody who worked on Blair Witch has gone anywhere. This is unsurprising to me--while I liked the film alright, had "one-hit wonder" written all over it, and the people behind it didn't do anything to disabuse that notion, i.e. Blair Witch 2. Even more disappointing was their decision to flee horror and thus damn the sequel to being terrible, not realizing that their reputations might sail into the toilet with it.
Having had some experience in trying to dodge the "one-hit wonder" tag, I'm sympathetic but the writing is on the wall. It's all about embracing and extending--do works that build off of your first success in novel and interesting ways, extending your brand without diluting it, or worse, denying it.
And for God's sake, meet people! One of these guys says that thanks to getting some cash from the film, he was able to lock himself in a room for three years. Hello? How does this help somebody get known around town and get things done? Nobody gets to simply ignore the system, not even studio honchos.
By the end of the article they seem to have learned their lesson, but thanks to all the ineptness they are stuck in a bad position begging to make more Blair Witch films, which is exactly where they never wanted to be. They could have been contenders, or at least had their shot...now they get to start over again, hopefully wiser.
1:12 AM
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