Since bursting onto the scene withThe Blair Witch Project, Daniel Myrick has maintained a surprisingly low profile.
Within five years of leaving film school, youd made the most talked about film on the planet!
I got into editing, and ironically enough cutting a lot of Planet Hollywood videos!
[laughs]
But strangely enough that kind of helped us pay for some of theBlair Witchstuff.
It was called The Woods idea.
And then I contacted Ed and from that point on it was okay, lets make the woods movie.
And then I told him about this idea, and shot this little investor trailer.
It was in the spirit of the eventual film, a fake documentary, and it completely fooled him.
And then he showed that on his show, and that got the ball rolling for Blair Witch.
Its such a process.
But there was a real distinction to it.
That was part of the recipe.
A lot of films were coming out at that time, horror films specifically that just werent scaring people.
And I think that people miss that.
As I said, it was the most practical film to do at the time.
They had good characters, well written, well-acted films.
And I never really classified them as horror genre films.
They were good films.
And at least personally be a little bit choosy about what we got involved with afterwards.
Its like going to war.
And if you dont believe in your mission, its a miserable, miserable experience.
But Ill take my hits.
You had an ending in there that would have survived no studio process whatsoever.
Theres no way you could have pitched something like that back then.
It was so counter to the conventions of the time.
Now maybe you could pitch it.
LikeThe Legend Of Boggy Creek.
These slow documentaries that we felt were so creepy and scary, and bathed with reality.
I remember at the time there was talk of a pair of sequels.
Can you clear that up?
Artisan, like most distributors, theyre a business.
Theyre out to make money.
I dont begrudge them that.
And so they wanted to capitalise on theBlairhype immediately, while it was in full swing.
And they owned the rights to the movie after the purchase at Sundance, and did it their way.
And would you revisit the Blair Witch?
Yeah, we have several ideas.
The great thing aboutBlair Witchis that its more than just a single movie, its a whole mythology.
We have a prequel idea that would be cool to do.
I even outlined a whole sequel, way back in the day.
Theres definitely room to explore that.
But its hard to live up to that.
And theres that part of me that says why bother, why venture to repeat that.
So did you see the sequel?
And did you have any thoughts on it?
[long pause]
Im assuming theres not much you want to say about it!
Well, it is what it is as they say [laughs].
I just felt that he was hobbled in a lot of ways.
I think the sequel was just a result of a movie getting made for all the wrong reasons.
And that happens all the time in this business.
Good ideas can go bad because theyre made for the wrong reasons.
The mission isnt the right mission.
Even though all the players may be noble players, the mission itself is fundamentally flawed.
With you it sounds like the other way round: that its given you the freedom to say no?
Thats the whole purpose in life!
Im the luckiest guy on the planet in that respect.
But its a doubled-edged sword.
Let the work speak for itself, and hopefully your body of work will speak about you.
I thought they executed it on a lot of levels very well.
I would have done a couple of things differently.
But I think that for a film like that to get made is very encouraging.
The parallels keep being drawn.
Does it come across to you thatBlair Witchis now seen as almost iconic?
Yeah, it really is staggering sometimes.
I see references to Blair Witch and its almost like a verb.
And Ill just go what!
It really becomes part of the lexicon of culture.
You didnt immediately followBlair Witchup, though.
We didnt take the more traditional route of film making, if there is such a thing.
We were catapulted to absolute nobodies to the top of the heap in a matter of weeks.
What is our place in the world?
Was it a fluke?
Was it on the merits of the movie?
We had this internal struggle, at least I know I did, about our validity as film makers.
A little bit ahead of its time.
than something that you feel is not really inspired.
Even the Raw Feed project, as genre-specific as those are, its another experiment.
I just like that idea, giving these film makers a crack at doing these small, low-budget features.
I leave that to other people to make that assessment about me and my work.
I just can only do things that I would want to see myself.
What would I do that I would pay ten bucks to go and see.
So having moved out to LA, I romanced about the desert and this and that.
Man feeling small and insignificant and out of his element.
I think the desert was a good backdrop for that, and also felt that its fairly timely.
And the film is finished, and youre hitting the selling process now?
Were very excited about it, Im really proud of the movie.
Hopefully they will be debating it.
But I like it when films do that, when they make the audience work a little bit.
Any news on a UK release?
Does it come off the back of the film festivals?
Yeah, I think so.
The goal now is to sell the movie and go into distribution.
Id like nothing more than to go to London and showcase the film there that would be incredible.
Whats the plan afterThe Objective?
That will be determined by what happens withThe Objective!
Its hard to describe its a guy with the ability to turn ordinary people into serial killers.
And so it isnt so much that hes the villain, he turns you into one.
Its a different take on that.
Id like to get that going if possible!
Daniel Myrick, thank you very much.
