Whether you liked it or not, The Blair Witch Project was a pretty remarkable exercise in pop culture. Rabid debates of its ingenuity or lack thereof, numerous "Josh!!!" jokes, nausea from the less-than-steady cam work and the all too familiar "snotty camcorder confession". Even if you didn't like the movie, you had to admire how it managed to seep into the mainstream. Director Eduardo Sanchez was supposed to be the new genius of independent horror. Fast-forward a few years and every scrap of dignity the original film had was stripped away with an abomination known as The Blair Witch Project 2: The Book of Shadows -- now to be fair Sanchez had nothing to do with the sequel, but the die was cast.

After 6 years, Sanchez finally has a new movie coming out, good news right? Or maybe not, the movie is going straight to DVD. I know lots of good films have found their market with DVD but there is something about a "direct-to-video" horror movie that fills me with images of bad b-movies – Rabid Grannies, Killer Clowns from Outer Space, that sort of thing. Sanchez's Altered is a revenge flick about a group of friends abducted by aliens who get the chance for a little payback for the probing, as it were. Plus, it looks like old habits die-hard because just like The Blair Witch Project there is a character blog and a website already. There isn't much content on either yet, but there are promises of updates to come. Altered is being released on DVD December 19th, any takers?

[via Film Junk]

Odds and ends from Friday:

• Not long ago, Samuel L. Jackson let out that Hayden Christensen was possibly joining him in Jumper, to be directed by Doug Liman. Well, Anakin Christensen has now officially signed on to star in the lead role, taking over for Tom Sturridge who was originally cast in the part. Apparently, folks wanted to go with a more "prominent actor." Damn, talk about a slap in the face. Sorry Tom.
• Mandate Pictures has snatched up the rights to 27 Times, scripted by Thomas Thonson. The dark, super-natural thriller is said to revolve around a paranoid young man who profits off his brother's ability to foresee violent deaths. No word yet on a director or cast.
• While speaking about his latest film, Blair Witch co-writer/director Eduardo Sanchez claimed he's real interested in putting together a Blair Witch 3 ... if a Lionsgate will get behind it. According to Sanchez, he'd like to do a prequel that involved Elly Kedard. "We've given it a lot of thought and there's even a pretty good treatment ..." Currently Sanchez is busy shooting Altered, which Rogue Pictures will release next year. [via Moviehole]