The inhabitants of Burkittsville, Maryland, where The Blair Witch Project was shot, have said they do not want the film crew back again.

At a meeting with the sequel's director Joe Berlinger, an ex-councilman, Sam Brown, declared that the sleepy hamlet - population less than 200 - had been "raped" by unwanted fans who had vandalised gravestones and stolen town property as souvenirs in the wake of the phenomenally successful indie sleeper. Brown, along with other residents, claimed that the sequel would turn the townsfolk into "prostitutes" and demanded that the producers think again. He seems to have succeeded in getting what he wants. According to Michael Styer, director of the Maryland Film Office, the Blair Witch 2 producers wanted to feature the town, but a "minority of citizens made it clear they would be 'inhospitable' to the project."

The whole episode is proving rather embarrassing for the townês mayor. Joyce Brown is keen for Berlinger to film in Burkittsville but it is her husband, the aforementioned Sam, who is behind the "broomsticks out" campaign. She says she has faxed a letter and left numerous messages for the producers at Blair Redux Productions, Inc. regretting her failure for not having stopped the town meeting, but her apologies donêt seem to have cut much ice with the battle-weary producers. In an interview with USA Today Styer says, "Since limited shooting was scheduled for the town and the scenes were generic enough to be duplicated elsewhere in Maryland, it was decided by [the filmmakers] that it was not worth spending any more time trying to make it in Burkittsville."

When they do find a location for the top-secret sequel, director Berlinger, famous for his award-winning documentaries, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hill and Brother's Keeper, hopes to start filming straightaway in time for a Halloween release this year. A planned prequel by original co-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez should be ready for summer 2001.