New Blair Witch Project film on the way from Blumhouse and Lionsgate

Prolific horror studio Blumhouse is teaming with Lionsgate for a new “reimagining” of The Blair Witch Project, it was announced today at CinemaCon.

It's part of a new multi-picture deal that will see Blumhouse “reimagine horror classics from the Lionsgate library,” the announcement says. Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum will team with Roy Lee, who worked on 2016's Blair Witch, to produce, but no further details have been announced.

“I am very grateful to (Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chairman) Adam (Fogelman) and the team at Lionsgate for letting us play in their sandbox. “I am a huge admirer of The Blair Witch Project, which brought the idea of ​​found footage horror to mainstream audiences and became a true cultural phenomenon,” Blum said in a statement. “I don't think there would have been any paranormal activity if there hadn't been a Blair Witch first, so it feels like a really special opportunity and I'm excited to see where it goes.”

Blumhouse is best known for producing reliably profitable horror films on tight budgets, including the aforementioned Paranormal Activity series, Insidious, The Purge, Sinister, the rebooted Halloween trilogy, M3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy's. It most recently worked with Lionsgate on the horror film Imaginary last month.

As Blum mentions in his statement, “The Blair Witch Project” had a huge impact upon its release in 1999, popularizing the enduring “found footage” genre. What caused a stir was an unconventional marketing campaign – one of the first ever to take place largely online – that aimed to raise questions about whether the events in the film actually happened.

The Blair Witch Project grossed $248 million at the worldwide box office, an astonishing margin considering it was made for less than $1 million. This spawned two sequels: the poorly reviewed 2000 sequel Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 and 2016's Blair Witch, which ignored the events of Book of Shadows and appeared as a direct sequel to The Blair Witch Witch Project” functioned.

For more on CinemaCon 2024, check out our recap of everything announced from last night's Warner Bros. presentation.

Alex Stedman is a senior news editor at IGN and leads entertainment coverage. When she's not writing or editing, she reads fantasy novels or plays Dungeons & Dragons.