The Blair Witch Project 3: Interview

Interview by By Clint Morris

Interview with Dan Myrick
Prepping the forthcoming Blair Witch 3 film.

Not too long ago, a small independent film called The Blair Witch Project shattered box office records, in turn becoming the most profitable independent film in history. Haxan Film's Dan Myrick, one half of the original team to see their vision reach the multiplex, and also one sharer of the $200 Million plus gross.

Directors/Writers Dan Myrik and Eduardo Sanchez

"It gave me a career", Myrick says. "Before Blair, I was just another 'no budget' filmmaker in Orlando".

'No Budget' he may have been - but that didn't stop Blair Witch from eating up everything in it's path, and Myrick becoming one of the most sought after Horror Helmers in Tinseltown.

"We were offered a lot of horror projects", tells Myrick. "Some were okay, but most didn't interest us much. Ed (Sanchez) and I really wanted to go on to something different, even if it took a while to wait for the right time and project."

With so many horror sequels getting commissioned, it's little news that the Haxan team was offered a couple. "We were offered to do Exorcist 4 and passed. It's tough to follow up classics, so I'd rather come up with something new." Myrick says. The director also let know he is a fan of "Godzilla", but that's how he's going to stay. As a fan, not a helmer.

The film that Myrick's heart and soul has been immersed in the last couple of years is a romantic comedy called Heart of Love, but there's still no indication that the film is nearing any closer to production. "It's being shopped around with the hope a someone will back the film. It's a tough sell, because it's such an off the wall comedy, but we'd love to get a chance to make it happen with the right studio behind us," says Myrick.

After the success of the original Blair Witch Project, the studios wanted more. Unfortunately, it was all a little too soon for Myrick and Sanchez. So a sequel, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 was prepped without them.

"We really had no involvement with it and would rather have had Artisan (the distributor who made the film) wait until all the buzz around Blair died down", he says. "Personally, I didn't like it", he confirms.

As much as he loathed the second Blair Witch film, Myrick recently announced plans to head back into the woods to do a third Blair Witch film, which he is prepping as we speak, but stresses that it's a long way off.

"Right now all we've committed to is exploring the possibility of doing a prequel to Blair" says Myrick. "We don't have a script written yet, so it's impossible to tell right now, but the budget will most certainly be higher than the first." He adds.

And although he says casting hasn't started yet, he would love Steve Martin to be in one of his movies. If it ends up Blair Witch 3, I think I'd shell out twice the money to see it.

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