WWE Studios and Lionsgate have been working on a big screen reboot of the long-running horror movie franchise Leprechaun for years. Wrestling superstar Hornswoggle was tapped to replace Warwick Davis (Willow) as the title character, and plans were afoot to make the new film – Leprechaun: Origins – into a serious supernatural thriller that would return the demonic Irish imps to their original, scary roots. Now you can finally get your first look at Leprechaun: Origins in the film’s first trailer (below), but the big news isn’t the footage itself, it’s that Lionsgate has decided to dump the film on Straight-to-Video, bypassing the planned theatrical release entirely.
While it may come as no surprise that this new Leprechaun movie has come out short (ahem), which is probably the only way to interpret the downgrade from a theatrical release to a home video exclusive, that’s no reason to assume that Leprechaun: Origins will suck outright. Although the first trailer for the film errs on the side of caution, showing a standard horror thriller set-up (complete with a “cabin in the woods” reference), it does appear that director Zach Lipovsky (Tazmanian Devils) is taking the material as seriously as advertised. Maybe it’ll be kinda scary after all.
Related Article: Zach Lipovsky Talks Leprechaun Origins
We’ll find out when Leprechaun: Origins hits Digital HD and VOD on August 26, or you can always wait for the DVD/Blu-ray release on September 30, 2014.
This Week in Film News – Week Ending 06/13/2014
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
This Week in Film News - Week Ending 06/13/14
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