TIFF 2013: Zach Lipovsky on Leprechaun: Origins

The director of the Leprechaun reboot, Leprechaun: Origins, thinks he can make homicidal Irish sprites scary again.

After my dinner with WWE Studios head Michael Luisi at Sundance, WWE invited me to attend Summer Slam in Los Angeles, in their executive box with a host of WWE Studios filmmaker talent. I watched the Twisted Twins cheer on Kane, and caught up with Ashley Bell of The Last Exorcism, The Day and The Marine 3: Homefront. I met Zach Lipovsky for the first time. He was a contestant on the Fox reality show “On the Lot” in which aspiring filmmakers competed “American Idol” style. Lipovsky is directing Leprechaun: Origins, the reboot starring Hornswoggle (Dylan Postl) as the title creature. Lipovsky wouldn’t tell me whether he included a cameo by the original leprechaun, Warwick Davis. That will remain a surprise, but he gave me a phone interview after he returned from a screening of his rough cut. WWE will have a presence at the Toronto International Film Festival as they did at Sundance so we’re happy to present their filmmakers now with some early buzz on their upcoming films.
 

Zach Lipovsky: I was just at the screening, so it’s perfect timing.
 

CraveOnline: Oh, did you screen Leprechaun already?

I did, first cut today.
 

What does it clock in at?

Just where we need to be, how about that? It’s still early. We’re still just seeing the movie for the very first time.
 

So first, did anything come out of “On the Lot?”

For all of us it was really tough timing whether we won or we didn’t. We had the world’s greatest spotlight, everyone was really impressed with what we did and then it went right into the writing strike where basically Hollywood shut down. And then right out of that, it went into the recession where basically everyone stopped spending money. It took years and years for all of that to settle itself out. By the time it did, we were all kind of back to square one again. Kind of the world’s best soapbox at the worst time.
 

How did you start over then?

Basically starting back and really working on my own stuff and getting people excited about things that I had done. I did a lot of commercials as well just to keep working. Just knocking on doors and trying to get people to let me make movies. I had to start small again. Everyone felt, after such a thing with Spielberg and “On the Lot,” it makes you feel like, “Oh, we’re going to be directing massive, huge movies and we’re going to have the world as our oyster.” Just the way that the world worked, that didn’t happen so I’ve kind of had to begin like anyone else, working my way up with the small horror movies and working my way up.
 

Was Syfy one of the doors you knocked on?

Yeah, Syfy for the monster movie I did, Tasmanian Devils, was a great opportunity because it was a small movie but they’re really willing to go a new way. A lot of the time when you hire directors that have been doing it for a long time, they just want to get their check and move on. They were like, “Hey, why don’t we try someone who’s more making movies for the love of it and have some fun with it?” I was pretty proud of what we were able to pull off there, and it kind of showed them a new way of doing it.
 

When you see the success of Sharknado, are people starting to get what they can do with a Syfy movie?

The problem with a lot of those movies is they end up being very similar and there’s a lot that they could be doing. I hope with that success, they can definitely start finding new ways of making new movies.
 

What would be another way to distinguish that kind of movie?

Good question. What I learned making those movies is it’s pretty difficult because of the commercial breaks. You’re kind of stuck in this eight act structure, and because you don’t necessarily know if the audience has been paying attention the whole time or have they just tuned in or what had happened between the last commercial break, it really changes the structure of your film’s horror. You can’t really do the slow burn like you could in Jaws or something like that because they might have just tuned in or they might tune out so you basically have to have a kill every 10 minutes between every commercial and you have to show the monster, because people might be like, “Oh, this isn’t a monster movie.” It’s interesting because the formula is kind of defined by the form of being a TV movie. I would at least try looking for ways to play within that. It makes sense but it’s very limiting in the same way.
 

How did you hook up with WWE?

WWE contacted me. They shot the film in Canada which is where I’m from, so they needed a Canadian. They actually had seen Tasmanian Devils and were really excited by what it was. It was a similar budget, similar schedule, similar genre so they thought that it would be a good fit.
 

Since it’s Leprechaun: Origins is it a complete new beginning, or does it have any connections to the previous ones?

It’s basically a complete refresh, reboot. We’re not trying to copy or really do at all what the last one did. It kind of did what it was doing so well, that’s why they made so many of them, but we’re going a completely new direction and completely new world and everything which is why they were excited by what I brought to the table because I was pretty new to the whole Leprechaun thing myself. It was kind of what can we do to make something that’s a legitimate horror movie rather than something a bit more campy?
 

Did you go back and watch the six original ones?

[Laughs] I didn’t make it through all of them but I definitely went back to figure out where I could pull some homages from and stuff like that. To a certain degree, as they get more and more outlandish, I was like I think I get it.
 

Did you make it to space or the hood?

I didn’t make it to those ones, no. I mostly focused on the first one and then I started watching pieces of the second one and then from then on, I just went online and just looked at highlight reels of all the kills and what goes down just so I can know in general what’s there. Mostly we wanted to do our own thing so I just wanted to be familiar enough with the world. It didn’t really have a lot in reference to what we were doing because we’re going such a different direction. It was more just to familiarize myself with the franchise more than to change our film.

CraveOnline: Now audiences have seen everything anyway. How do you make a leprechaun genuinely scary?

Zach Lipovsky: I think you’ll be surprised. As the title suggests, we’re really telling an origin of where the myth could’ve come from. So we’re really going to a much darker, grittier, kind of like Guillermo del Toro telling a more grounded and grittier, darker version rather than the Lucky Charms version you might be expecting. I think when you first see the leprechaun you’ll be like, “Oh, dear God. This is absolutely terrifying and disgusting.” Rather than, “Oh, look at that funny little guy.”
 

But it is contemporary, modern day?

Yeah, it just has a feeling of kind of, in that way that Guillermo del Toro has kind of modern films that still feel like they’re set in kind of a mythic time. That’s the direction I wanted to go.
 

Can you do a slow burn in a movie where the title is Leprechaun?

I think so. I think everyone is going to be very curious as to what our leprechaun looks like, so the longer we can draw out the reveal of that, the better. Because they know it’s a leprechaun but they don’t know what kind and what it looks like and what it’s capable of so those are revelations that we can slowly reveal throughout the film.
 

Were you involved in designing the makeup?

Yeah, I did all the concept art to begin with and then I brought that to the makeup artists. He’s basically mostly practical so we worked with them to build it and work with Dylan to see what worked with him and everything, but the original design was something I did and then we just brought in the crew and built it from there.
 

Did Dylan have some notes, like “That won’t work for me?”

He didn’t necessarily have notes. It was more what worked with his physique and what looks the scariest and what’s more comfortable, what gives him more freedom of motion and stuff like that.
 

How long did it take to make him up as Leprechaun?

Each day it took about two hours, and then he’d basically be in it and wouldn’t really be able to take it off. We would take it off for lunch but then it would mean we wouldn’t be able to film with him for another two hours. It was pretty intense for him. We were shooting in the middle of the summer so he was a trooper.
 

I imagine this project came with Dylan attached because he’s their star, so how did they present that to you?

Yeah, they presented it in basically just the way that you put it. He’s the star. He’s the one who’s going to be driving eyes. At the same time, you’re not tied to the character that people know him as. So we still have a lot of freedom even though it’s him. It was good. They’re totally open to doing something completely new.
 

How did the schedule work out with his wrestling schedule?

Pretty good. WWE Studios works obviously very closely with WWE on the entertainment side so they flew him out back and forth for the times when we needed him and then all the way through production he was there. Those guys travel so much, it’s kind of insane. I think he lives in Wisconsin. He’s on the road in a different city five days a week and flies home again for two days, and then flies back. They’re all over the world all the time. I think spending three weeks in one space was probably unusual for him.
 

Was there any point where you had to recreate Ireland in Canada?

I don’t know if I’m allowed to answer that or not. They told me to keep as much of the story under wraps as possible.
 

Can you say anything about the other characters in the story?

I don’t know if I can.
 

Okay, I understand. Is the intention for this to be an R-rated Leprechaun?

Yeah, definitely.
 

Does that come in the kills?

It comes out definitely in the kills. There’s pretty insane stuff there and just as far as the tone. It’s made for adults. It’s not made for kids. It’s not a total torture porn gore fest either.
 

You’re doing the leprechaun practical, but are there other CGI effects?

Less than you would think. There’s stuff in there for sure but most of the kills and the leprechaun and everything was done as practical as possible, with really, really talented makeup effects team in Vancouver. We were going so fast, we just wanted stuff to look good on camera. Basically the approach I take is doing it as practical as possible and then using visual effects to help it along.
 

How hands on or hands off was WWE when you were working?

I mean, they were very involved in the development of the story and what they want to achieve. By the time we started shooting and getting everything rolling, they were fairly hands off. Basically, we all figured out what we wanted to do and then they let me go do it.
 

How much more post work do you have?

Well, the film’s coming out in the spring. We’re still editing right now so we’ll probably be working on it, editing for a while and then starting sound and color as it gets into the fall. We’ll probably have it all wrapped up by the end of the year.
 

If this goes well, would you be on board for future Leprechaun movies?

I hope so. We’ll see how it all goes. We have all sorts of funny ideas of where it could go. This film is kind of an origin story, as the title suggests, so there’s definitely a lot of interesting places it could go.
 

Do you think it could ever go back into space or the hood?

[Laughs] I’m pretty sure they don’t want to go there. I think that territory has been well explored, don’t you?
 

Yes. Do you have a look at any other WWE film properties they have going on?

Yeah, they’ve already expressed interest in doing another one but we’ll just see how this one turns out. Right now I’m just trying to make this movie. It’s been such a whirlwind. It happened very quickly, so trying to focus as much as I can on it. I also have a film called Afflicted that’s premiering in Toronto that I produced. It’s premiering in Midnight Madness on the 9th and I think people are going to be pretty blown away.
 

Is it a horror movie?

Well, I don’t want to give anything away. It’s best watched without knowing anything about it and that’ll be the world premiere, so that’ll be the best time to see it. There are some great reveals. I just produced this one with a close group of friends of mine.