By Jeff Berkwits

"In September 2000, while shooting a documentary somewhere in the heart of Hollywood about her favorite childhood movie, Blair Billingsly disappeared.

"Two hours later, the footage was found.

"One month after that, it was streaming over the Internet."

The opening lines of The Blair Witch Mountain Project are certainly similar to the famous prologue for The Blair Witch Project. However, once viewers get past the introduction, they'll find this picture is much funnier - and definitely more nostalgic - than the now-legendary low-budget horror flick.

The Blair Witch Mountain Project is a short film produced and directed by Iake Eissinmann, star of the popular 1970s Disney movies Escape to Witch Mountain and Return from Witch Mountain. In addition to Eissinmann, who as a child portrayed Tony in both motion pictures, The Blair Witch Mountain Project features appearances by other actors from the two features, including Kim Richards (Tia), Dermott Downs (Truck), Brad Savage (Muscles), Christian Juttner (Dazzler) and Dick Bakalyan (Eddie). The Blair Witch Mountain Project is the first time most of these individuals have appeared together since 1978, when Return from Witch Mountain was released.

"The Blair Witch Mountain Project is essentially a spoof of the Blair Witch spoofs," explains Eissinmann, who wrote the story with his wife Alex. "But it's also a really great way to revisit some of the people involved - and their characters - in a context that's fun!"

In the 13-minute-long production, filmmaker Blair Billingsly (played by actress Hope Levy) seeks out members of the Witch Mountain casts and visits various locations where the movies were shot in a quest to uncover why, more than 20 years after their initial release, the pictures remain so popular. As she encounters many of the actors, she becomes increasingly obsessed with finding Tony and Tia, the two 'alien' children who starred in the features. At one point, she even interviews famed celebrity biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli (author of Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness and Sinatra: Behind the Legend, among other books).

"Being able to project yourself onto these two kids who could make things happen just by thinking about them is probably one of the great fantasy situations that a child could set up," says Eissinmann. "There's a real magical aspect to it. So thinking back on that time and all the things that happened, and now getting back together with these people, has been wonderfully nostalgic and great fun." Actually, the original proposal for the film didn't begin with such grand expectations. "It started out simply as a funny idea," notes Eissinmann. "We thought, 'What a great play on The Blair Witch Project.' But then, as sometimes happens, ideas start to mushroom. People find out about them and they get excited, which in turn makes it exciting for us."

While best known as a child star, Eissinmann - who as an actor spelled his name Ike Eisenmann - has also appeared in numerous other pictures as an adult, including Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, The Formula and Tom and Huck. Nonetheless, he has most recently made his mark in the entertainment industry as a director. His film Single Family Dwelling, which he co-wrote and produced with his wife, is one of the highest rated movies at the iFilm.com Web site, and was nominated for the Burke Humanitarian Award at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival 2000.

Yet even with this newfound success, Eissinmann fondly remembers "the good old days" working on the Witch Mountain movies. "Performing in Escape to Witch Mountain was an extraordinary experience," he recalls. "I had more fun than just about any other project I'd ever worked on as an actor. I got to work with all these effects and be a part of the Disney magic that, even as a child, I had admired from afar. When that opportunity came up, it was honestly a childhood dream come true."

And Eissinmann hopes that, through The Blair Witch Mountain Project, he'll also be able to share a bit of that magic with Witch Mountain aficionados. "You know, Kim [Richards] and I haven't been in a picture together in nearly 20 years," he laughs. "It's really great for us to be together again, especially in a fun context like this, so that the fans can see us one more time!"