It’s no secret that Darren Lynn Bousman has had his sights set on both the Leprechaun franchise and Flowers In The Attic for some time now, but why haven’t his wishes been honored yet? Or better yet, why were they written off? Instead of giving Bousman the reigns in terms of full rights to remake/reboot the properties how he sees fit, both projects were optioned to different creative teams. WWE and director Zach Lipovsky gave us last year’s abysmal Leprechaun: Origins, while Lifetime is now on their FOURTH Flowers In The Attic movie. I don’t claim to know the Hollywood game, but still, given the status of both projects, one has to ask – what the fuck?
Let’s start with Bousman’s take on Leprechaun, a franchise near and dear to the deviant filmmaker’s heart. Instead of giving the rights to the man behind a trio of bloody Saw films, plus some of the more inventive flicks around the horror genre these days (Repo! The Genetic Opera/The Devil’s Carnival), the Leprechaun franchise was neutered like a one-legged dog who couldn’t run away. Dylan Postl (aka Hornswoggle) was shoved in a rubber suit like an Irish sausage (banger, I believe), the Leprechaun was turned into a feral monster, and EVERYTHING about the franchise was replaced by a horrid, lifeless, and inescapably generic creature feature not even worth a single chocolate fake coin.
When I asked Bousman about the kind of Leprechaun movie he’d make given the chance, this was his response:
You make it jokey – it’s fucking Leprechaun! How do you make that scary? What made the first one so awesome to me is how over the top and ridiculous it is. You can have scares IN it, absolutely, and make it macabre, absolutely, but I think trying to terrify someone with a Leprechaun is kind of hard. For me, I want to make Leprechaun fun again. I want it to be one of those movies you high five your friends during. I’m not trying to terrify you with Hornswoggle. But I’m sure he was great. I didn’t see it, so…
Don’t worry, I immediately informed Darren about the laughable monster suit, and the massive lack of high-fives:
I refuse to even watch Leprechaun: Origins. I’ve been telling Lionsgate, who’s had the rights forever, to please give me the Leprechaun series.
That’s ridiculous. No. I’m going to start a petition to direct the next Leprechaun movie right now.
The fact that studio heads refused to honor Bousman’s wishes while putting faith in WWE Studios is a downright shame made even worse because we know the quality of Leprechaun: Origins.
