Amber Entertainment, Haxan Films prep horror feature
By DAVE MCNARY

Amber Entertainment and Haxan Films — the banner behind “The Blair Witch Project” — are scaring up “The Possession” as part of a multipicture deal.

Amber and Haxan plan to start shooting in Maryland in October with “Blair Witch” director Eduardo Sanchez helming from a script he co-wrote with Jamie Nash.

“The Possession,” which explores the thin line between demonic possession and psychosis, starts off as a simple horror film about things that go bump in the night but slowly turns into a thriller about the evil power that exists inside one troubled young woman.

Robin Cowie and Gregg Hale are producing for Haxan and Mark Ordesky and Jane Fleming are producing for Amber, the venture formed last year by the fomer New Line execs along with Ileen Maisel and Brit documentarian Lawrence Elman. Bob Eick and Andy Jenkins are exec producing “The Possession.”

“The Blair Witch Project” took in more than $140 million domestically in 1999 as an indie horror sensation, thanks to a variety of viral marketing campaigns. Worldwide the film grossed $250 million and the sequel did $48 million.

Since then, Haxan has produced two features — “Altered,” released by Rogue Pictures in 2006, and “Seventh Moon,” released by Lionsgate in 2008 — and two TV series. Over the past 10 years, the principals in Haxan have also been involved with various Internet companies creating “transmedia” marketing campaigns and e-commerce Web solutions.

Direct article here.

The Official Motion Picture Soundtrack for Seventh Moon is now available for your inquiring ears. Blair Witch fans take notice, this soundtrack was composed by Haxan’s very own Tony Cora who also scored the sound and effects for good ol’ Blair.

Tony’s a musician to be reckoned with. I’m proud to own several of his recordings. No two are alike, each one as individual as Tony is himself.

Kent Sparling also takes credit for the soundtrack. Kent’s a visual and recording artist who began composing on the piano after having been asked to leave his elementary school orchestra for inventing harmony counter-melodies on his saxophone. Go figure. Makes sense now.

Last night our man Ed was able to revisit BLAIR WITCH on the big screen once again at the Frederick Film Festival. And not just the theatrical version - but the original Sundance print.

…su-weet.

I’m sure he’ll have a few nostalgic thoughts coming your way soon enough, keep visiting.

Meanwhile, for those who ever wondered about those stick figures, here’s a glimpse into Woods Movie - the Making of The Blair Witch Project, complete with… uhm… “outtake” if you will…

Let it be known - if there is one thing Elly Kedward is in fact truly guilty of - would be her ability to bring folks together and to throw one hell of a party, one that has lasted for ten years as of today, and shows no signs of slowing down.

…and she’s long left the party, drink in one hand, smoke in the other, upstairs with some unsuspecting guest I should assume. Elly will get her man. But can she hold her liquor? Seems so.

Premiere day, July 16th, 1999

It was ten years ago today The Blair Witch Project was released to the masses. From Split Screen in ‘97 to Sundance in ‘99, Elly had a dress rehearsal that many have claimed changed Hollywood forever come July 16th.

Or did it? Perhaps it’s the audience that changed. In ‘99 we were overwhelmed with fat-budget, over the top films that hadn’t any fear attached but fantastical effects and make-up with the same girl tripping each time she fled the cliche creep/spook/monster.

Premiere night, July 16th, 1999

Enter Ed, Dan, Gregg, Rob, Mike and a crew of other folks who hadn’t an interest in “effects,” rather - they missed the effect films left on them. Whatever happened to those films? What happened to the Jaws’, the Shinings, the Exorcists of Hollywood? Did we now need an “In Search Of” in search of the original “In Search Of”?

What happened to the fear?

It never left actually. Not for the audience, and neither for these filmmakers. It has remained in our heads and imaginations since days as children; in fear of what hid under our beds, what lingered in our bedroom closets, what whispered from dark corners.

We changed, not Hollywood. As Myrick stated in the latest issue of “Rue-Morgue,” Blair Witch didn’t invent its style of narrative storytelling, and Haxan has never claimed to be the original first-person documentary, but Blair Witch certainly popularized it.

I can think of few films that have brought such amazing people together for such a long time without compromise. And I’m not speaking of film crews and actors, not of just Sanchez and company, I’m talking about you, the reader.

I am proud to be with Haxan Films, and I’m proud of this film. Yes, it’s still cool to be a fan.

But what I’m proud of most has nothing to do with Blair Witch. It has to do with friendships, relationships and experiences.

My pride remains with my loved ones. Don’t show me cash or fame, it will not, and has not, ever impressed me. Show me your passion.

Passion does not equate “success” because success is measured on scales that can never be defined. A painter’s definition of success does not equal a banker’s definition of success.

One’s own passion equates one’s own success. I’ve quoted this before, and I’ll do so again - “One’s work can be seen as an immeasurable journey to rediscover, through the detours of art, those one or two great and simple things in which their heart first opened.”

My pride are in my impressions, my loved ones, my brothers here. Ed, Stef, Bianca, Luke, Dan, Julia, Mike, Toni, Dean, Mia, Joshua, Eric and others (you know who you are).

Yes, Elly introduced us ten years ago. But truth be told, Elly’s a bitch. Piss her off and you’re done. And believe me, Elly possesses a rather low tolerance level and a rather high temper.

It’s to who Elly introduced me to that has me celebrate today’s anniversary.

You can always make a film, but you can’t always make a friend. That you have to earn. And that jack, is the bottom line.

Here is what my friend Ed experienced in July of 1999 when success emerged to his passion…

Eduardo Miguel Sanchez

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HAXAN NEWS #36
July 12, 1999

Hey:

May all be going well in your lives, my sisters and my brothers.

Things are fine here. Just fine. Really. The press tour ended in MD last week and I’ve been chilling here with my hometown folks while Dan went back to O-town for a while. Now him and all the Haxan boys and girls are in New York. That’s where I’m headed right now to meet up with them and the actors to do a photo shoot for the Village Voice. Then we’re off to Mike Williams’ house for some sweet BBQ action with everyone including most of the Maryland crew. That is going to be honest.

The Village Voice - 1999

So as we count down the days to the national release of The Blair Witch Project, I’ve been feeling a little emotional and thought that it would be a good time to thank all of you for everything you’ve done for us, especially the peeps that were here from the beginning. All of us here at Haxan remember the early times when we hadn’t even finished the film yet, when all we had shown were the segments on Split Screen. The time before Sundance, before Cannes, before distribution, when all of this was just a dream that none of us expected to come true. You all kept us going through the dark days with your emails and your postings and your little pats on our backs.

(CUE THEME FROM “ST. ELMOS FIRE” HERE)

Besides the emotional support, we’d also like to thank you all for spreading the word on Blair. Your word of mouth has been phenomenal and we owe all of the buzz on this film to you. We’re glad you dug our idea and it has been a thrill for us to share our adventures with you. Yes, my friends, we thank you all and hope you continue to take this ride with us, even if our next film insults the very core of your being, which it probably will. Blair Witch has proven what we’ve known all along, that love conquers all. “Heart of Love” will destroy all of that.

All right, that’s about it for that.

Gregg and Stef with display.

So Monday night is the big New York premiere, filled with big-time stars and filmmakers and the big boys of Artisan and five idiots from Orlando and their dorky family and friends. It’s going to be a sight to behold, that’s for sure. Then Dan and I have to get up at like 6am on Tuesday to be on Good Morning America. Our first live nationwide interview after the late night premiere party! That sounds like a recipe for some fun and excitement and possibly some seriously bad hangovers on live TV! Wow!

Angelica lobby 1999

Then on Tuesday I hope to see some of you at the Angelika for the showings late that night. It’s going to be fun so dig it if you can. Also, we might have a slot on the Conan O’Brien show this week, probably on Wednesday, but we’re still unsure about that one. How weird is that going to be, eh? Very weird, I say. I also hope that some of you will be out in LA at the Duart on Friday night, because Dan and I will be there, passing out stuff and loving it.

Okay, remember the SCI-FI Channel’s “Curse of the Blair Witch” (Entertainment Weekly gave us a B+) on Tuesday night at 10 EDT and “Josh’s Blair Witch Mix” comes out on Tuesday, too. Besides some cool music, it has a 3 minute movie that you can play on your computer of a never before seen scene. Yes! I’ll write soon to tell you who showed up to our premiere and give you the lowdown on the fashions and stuff.

Five more days!

-ed

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HAXAN NEWS #37
July 21, 1999

Hey:

The press tour is over! Long live the queen!

Blair Witch on billboard.

So Dan and I are done with the press tour. We did it and we did it good. We’re on our way back from Toronto (where the film opens on July 30th), which was really the best place to end the tour. Interesting questions and good people and a lot of “eh?’s” after every sentence. Sweet stuff, my sisters and brothers. We’d like to thank everybody at every city we stopped at who helped us out and made the tour as painless as possible, though it was painful sometimes. You all know who you are and I’d like to send a shout out to all our publicity peeps from Dano and Eddy S!

Back to Orlando (yeah, I’m from Orlando) we go and I never thought I’d live to see the day when I looked so forward to breathing in that humid air and driving among the tourists again. I’ve been on the road for a month and I’m ready for blessed relief. Dan and I are ready to chill poolside with our babes for a bit, if you know what I mean. Slicey stuff.

Actually, we have a meeting tomorrow at Haxan and then I head off to Atlanta this weekend to do a little more press with Rob, who has family up there and early next week we have some TV meetings so I’m not sure when the poolside chilling is actually going to occur. It might just end up being us sitting around drinking water after a game of horse and staring at Gregg with his shirt off. Slicey stuff.

$1.5 million this weekend! Or something like that. $57,000 per-screen average! Lines around the block to buy tickets! Me still driving a 94 Hyundai Elantra!

SOLD OUT!

The weekend was amazing and I hope a lot of you got to see the film. Dan and I had a fantastic time meeting some of you at the Nuart on Friday night. We finally met Jeff Johnson, our number one homie from way back! He got a stickman tattoo on his shoulder! Need I say more? The boys is nuts and we appreciate everybody for coming out and standing in line and all that stuff to see our film.

So in case you haven’t seen us anywhere, we are all over the place this month. Especially moronic is August’s GQ, where Dan and I look like some seriously out-of-place monkeys with expensive clothes on! Something is definitely not right about that picture.

Dan and Ed: fashion idiots.

I checked out the comic book this weekend in LA and it is honesty at it’s maximum potential, to say the least. Some parts actually sent chills up my spine. Chills, I say! They’ve been selling out in places so if you see it, check it out because they did a pretty cool job on it. Pretty cool indeed.

And now to tell you something that hurts me and the guys here at Haxan. Really. We’ve been getting completely inundated with email lately, so much that it is becoming impossible for us to answer all of it. I’m sure you all can understand. At this very moment, I have almost 2000 emails in my box that have been piling up since April and all along I’ve been thinking that I’ll answer all of them one day but at this point I’ve realized that I can’t. I’m sorry, but all of us at Haxan are very busy and we try to answer some email everyday but just don’t be angry at us if we don’t respond to your messages now. We know this sucks but we can’t do anything about it, I’m afraid. I’m sorry.

Man, I’m so sad now. I feel like I just broke up with 6000 people.

So that’s the dealio from the boys of O-town and we hope you keep coming back even though things have changed so much lately and will continue to change, especially after the fall of civilization that will come shortly after the year 2000 and the apes finally take their rightful place as rulers over the remaining humans. We’ll try to stay the same as we move onto our next film, “Heart of Love,” which I’ll tell you more about soon. It’s going to be a wild one filled with hilarity and love and midgets.

Take care of yourselves and please leave the town of Burkittsville alone! Shame on you for stealing their sign! Shame, I say!

-ed

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Happy anniversary to Elly, Ed, Stef, Dan, Julia, Gregg, Adrian, Mike, Robin, Sarah, Ben, Josh, Michael, Toni, Tony, Matt, Christian, Kevin, Ric, Zubi, Lonnie, Shannon, Amy, Billy, Tina, Sandra, Carolyn, Fahad, Dennis, and yes - even to Heather and her 27 chickens, red Russian kale and heirloom tomatoes.

Life is good for all these people, not because Blair Witch was a success, but because each one of these people played a role in each others lives. And that - is success that a box office cannot match.

And that, is an anniversary worth celebrating.

HAXAN’s gotten a facelift as you can see. So has WOODS if you’ve not been there recently. Last month also saw an update to BLAIR as well.

There’s plenty more happening soon, including an all new SEVENTH MOON, stay tuned…

Happy New Year!

A treat from back in the day:

HAXAN NEWS #19

January 23, 1999

Hey:

We’re at SUNDANCE! Holy Scamoly!

We came in on Thursday in the middle of a blizzard that we thought we were going to die in. Our executive producer Kevin Foxe’s windshield wipers were busted so he had to keep sticking his arm out his driver’s window to manually move the suckers back and forth. We were behind him in a huge, 15 passenger van that we rented. We were warm and we were laughing at him. It was crazy, wacky stuff!!!!

The articles in the Post, FILMMAKER and RES came out. Pretty good stuff. We had a photo shoot yesterday morning for the LA TIMES. It was freezing! That comes out on Monday. We’re in INDIEWIRE today. The printed version at least.

We met with a bunch of distributors yesterday and we have two more meetings today. Tonight is the big night. Midnight. We’re hoping it’s packed. I’m nervous as hell. A lot of years of hard work and sacrifice on all our parts has come down to this. It doesn’t seem real sometimes.

We’re holding up pretty well. We’re all wearing our Blair hats and a lot of people stare at us like we’re morons because, after all, we’re all wearing the same damn hat! It’s cool, though. A lot of people have asked us about what the symbol in the front means and then we start talking about the movie and stuff.

All right, I’ll try to update you all as often as I can. Hope things are going well for all of you and take care.

-Ed

- For more BLAIR WITCH nostalgia, I’ll be on tonight at 8 PM EST on FEAR THE DEAD.