Exclusives
Lionsgate Plotting the Return of the ‘Leprechaun’ Franchise [Exclusive]
There have been eight films in the Leprechaun franchise to date, with 2018’s Leprechaun Returns most recently heading back to the original movie’s timeline in the wake of reboot Leprechaun Origins four years prior. What’s next from the franchise, you ask?
Bloody Disgusting’s sources indicate that Lionsgate is actively seeking out pitches for the next Leprechaun movie, so you can expect more from the mischievous horror icon soon.
We’ll report more as soon as we learn it.
On that note, Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II-IV, Repo: The Genetic Opera, Spiral: From the Book of Saw) has been publicly asking Lionsgate to let him tackle a new installment in the horror-comedy Leprechaun franchise for over ten years now, and he recently teased his vision in a chat with Bloody Disgusting. For starters, he’d definitely bring Warwick Davis back.
“I would make a more direct sequel to the Leprechaun franchise,” Bousman told BD’s Jason Jenkins last year. “I would not reboot it. I don’t want to do that. I would demand that Warwick Davis come back. I wouldn’t do it without him.” Bousman added in that chat, “I would not try to change the tone. I would make it equally as batshit, bonkers crazy. It would be between the first film and Back 2 tha Hood. It would be somewhere in that tonal frame. It got really ridiculous as they went on, but that ridiculousness is what made them fun.”
The Leprechaun franchise kicked off with Mark Jones’s original horror-comedy in 1993, which was followed by five Warwick Davis-starring sequels, a reboot, and later Leprechaun Returns in 2018. Even though Leprechaun Returns was a sequel to the original movie, Linden Porco took over the role of the title character, played by Dylan Postl for Leprechaun Origins.
Lionsgate is also looking to revive The Blair Witch Project franchise.
A gnarly infection threatens to claw its way out of a moving camper in the first trailer for Shudder’s claustrophobic Hellcat.
The feature debut of writer/editor/director Brock Bodell, who previously edited the Fantasia title Ultrasound, makes its debut on Shudder on August 14.
In Hellcat, “Lena wakes up in a moving camper trailer with a horrifying wound. She’s warned by the driver that they have one hour to get to a doctor, or she’ll succumb to an unimaginably awful fate. As the pain sets in and reality begins to fray, who should really be afraid?”
Dakota Gorman (Natural Disasters) leads the cast that also includes Todd Terry (“Breaking Bad”), Liz Atwater (The Other People), Jordan Mullins (The Bikeriders), and James Austin Johnson (“Saturday Night Live”) in a voice role. Bodell also produces alongside Andrew Duensing and Nate Eggert.
Hellcat made its world premiere last summer at Fantasia. I wrote in my review, “Hellcat is a bit of a Trojan horror that defies easy classification, by design. Bodell’s sneaky debut feature is occasionally too sparse in its worldbuilding in its bid to preserve the mystery, but not enough to detract from the thrilling road thriller that transforms into a completely left-field type of horror we don’t get nearly enough of. The stripped-down tribute to a classic horror staple catches you off guard in more ways than one, marking Bodell as one to watch.”
In other words, there’s a lot more than meets the eye to Hellcat‘s simple infection setup, delivering plenty of surprises along its bumpy road of horrors.
Check out the trailer and poster below and add Hellcat to your watchlists asap.
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