david j. moore chats with Zach Lipovsky, director of Leprechaun: Origins, at the San Diego Comic-Con…
WWE and Lionsgate have teamed up to reignite the Leprechaun horror franchise with Leprechaun: Origins, starring WWE superstar Dylan “Hornswoggle” Postl, who plays the iconic title role. Director Zach Lipovsky, inspired by the works of Guillermo del Toro, intends to horrify and thrill audiences rather than to make them chuckle and laugh, and by all indications, Leprechaun: Origins is as far as the east is to the west in terms of being comparable to the films starring Warwick Davis.
david j. moore: A lot of people seem to think that Leprechaun Origins is a reboot of the well-known franchise. Would you care to clarify that a little bit?
Zach Lipovsky: The really cool thing about Leprechaun Origins is that it’s a totally new, fresh perspective on the whole Leprechaun franchise. It’s also a fully legitimate, “R”-rated horror film. The past franchise really owned what it did and did it really well. They were fun and tongue in cheek. It would be a first “R”-rated horror movie for kids to watch and they’d really like it, but this really takes the next step. We ground it and try to really terrify people. People will watch it, expecting tongue in cheek, but they’ll be horrified by it.
djm: Were there any specific inspirations for you for this film?
ZL: It was inspired by the Guillermo del Toro films like Pan’s Labyrinth. When I first saw that, I had no idea what it was. At first it was like … there was fairy music, a troll, and I was relaxing into my seat and thinking, “Oh, this is so nice.” But then by the end, it was terrifying. It was really me trying to find a film that could get to the root of a creature. A Leprechaun. There was this notion that he’d be just a little green guy in a suit, and there’s nothing scary about that. Well, maybe three thousand years ago there was a Celtic myth about this creature, living deep in the mines of Ireland. Maybe there was a wicked story behind it. That’s the approach we took. He doesn’t grant wishes or tell riddles.
djm: Did you get everything you wanted shot for the film in terms of the violence and the gore? Will there be an “unrated” version?
ZL: We shot for an “R” rating all along. We didn’t have any NC-17 footage that needed to be cut. All the kills we wanted are in there the way we wanted them to be.
djm: Talk about working with your star, Dylan Postl.
ZL: It was so awesome working with Hornswoggle. He started his career as a really non-verbal performer. In this performance, the creature is very much in a Gollum-kind of state. His ability to communicate with his eyes and in a non-verbal way that we needed … his body language was great. What he had to go through was incredibly difficult. He had three hours of make-up every day. He had to be in that costume every day, and had to do some aggressive running. He never complained once. Those superstar wrestlers work so hard to be where they’re at that they will do whatever needs to be done. He was ready to do anything. He was willing to do any stunt that we had well trained people to do. His endurance as an athlete secretly came in to play with his performance.
djm: What basis did you use to design the Leprechaun make-up?
ZL: We looked at some creatures from mythology, but also we came to ask, “Well, why hasn’t anyone seen him in all this time?” He lives deep underground in these caves where there’s gold. We looked at a lot of underground creatures like naked mole rats and Gollum, and that bleached, wrinkly style. We also extended his arms and his legs and it looked kind of terrifying. People are going to be pretty surprised with what we came up with.
djm: Did WWE have stipulations with how you were going to use Hornswoggle in the film?
ZL: Not really. It was pretty much based on what we had for the story. They just wanted to make sure he was still alive at the end to continue his wrestling career. We had free reign with him.
djm: A movie like this usually demands a sequel. Is that the plan should this one be a success?
ZL: Yeah, obviously this franchise has legs. There’s something people really like about Leprechauns. I don’t know if our franchise will get to space, but there’s definitely room for it to continue to grow. Not a lot of characters get to make it to the end of the movie, though.
Many thanks to Zach Lipovsky for taking the time for this interview.
Leprechaun: Origins is set to open on August 26th, with a cast that includes Dylan “Hornswoggle” Postl (Muppets Most Wanted), Stephanie Bennett (Grave Encounters 2), Andrew Dunbar (Alien Trespass), Melissa Roxburgh (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days) and Brendan Fletcher (Freddy vs Jason). Watch the trailer here.
david j. moore is a contributing writer to Fangoria, FilmFax, Lunchmeat and VideoScope Magazines. His book WORLD GONE WILD: A SURVIVOR’S GUIDE TO POST-APOCALYPTIC MOVIES was published this year.
Originally published July 31, 2014. Updated January 18, 2020.
