‘Blair Witch Project’ Cast Slams Studio for Lack of Fair Compensation

(AP)

The original cast of “The Blair Witch Project” has accused Lionsgate of not fairly compensating them for their roles in the 1999 horror film.

Earlier this year, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group and Blumhouse announced plans to revive “The Blair Witch Project” franchise. Shortly after, in April, cast members Joshua Leonard, Heather Donahue (now Rei Hance), and Michael C. Williams publicly demanded fair compensation and consultation for any future projects using their names or likenesses.

“I don’t need Lionsgate to like me,” Leonard told Variety in an interview published Wednesday. “I don’t care that they know that I think their behavior has been reprehensible.”

Hance added that the complaint boiled down to one simple question.

“Is there value there or not? If there’s value, compensate us accordingly, and if there’s no value, then just stop using us,” Hance said.

Williams shared his frustrations over not receiving commensurate payment while becoming a public figure.

“Everybody’s wondering what happened, and your wife is in the grocery line and she can’t pay because a check bounced,” he said. “You’re in the most successful independent movie of all time, and you can’t take care of your loved ones.”

Upon announcing plans to reboot “The Blair Witch Project,” Lionsgate and Blumhouse reportedly used Leonard’s face on the press release — something he claimed to know nothing about in a Facebook post at the time.

“The WEIRD PART is that I didn’t know anything about it until a friend sent me a ‘congrats’ screenshot yesterday,” he wrote.

Leonard claimed that the actors each made $300,000 from a buyout of their ownership points on the film. It went on to gross $248 million worldwide.

The actors have asked Lionsgate for retroactive and future residuals “equivalent to the sum that would’ve been allotted through SAG-AFTRA, had we had proper union representation,” according to the Independent. They also want to be consulted on any future projects using their likenesses or for promotional purposes.

“I’m so proud of our little punk-rock movie, and I LOVE the fans who keep the flames burning,” he wrote in his post. “But at this point, it’s 25 years of disrespect from the folks who’ve pocketed the lion’s share (pun intended) of the profits from OUR work, and that feels both icky and classless.”