March 15, 2009

More news on the new Leprechaun comic book! It will be released on May 27, 2009. You can pre-order it at tfaw.com, which has this synopsis:

Based on the cult film from Lionsgate! This is the tale of Lubdan, the king and sole survivor of the Leprechauns. A treasure dealer stumbles across his pot of gold and steals it. In this modern age, he finds buyers all over the planet through on-line auctions.



Lubdan finds the thief after the gold is shipped to humans across the globe. Lubdan's quest takes him all over the planet, across time and space. Battling greed, the genocidal Cluracan and new mystical adversaries, Lubdan must save all life to save himself - but not without taking lives!

Lubdan must save all life? Hm, sounds like the Lep has become eco-friendly... you could even say that he's gone green. Bad jokes aside, click here for a look at the cover art.

We can expect to see more Lep adventures in comic book land. Fangoria reports that Nick Lyons has written a four-part Warlock vs Leprechaun mini-series that will be released later this year. This is apparently in addition to another four-part Warlock series that doesn't include the Leprechaun, which will be released starting March 25.

January 5, 2009

Today a story about a possible Willow remake was posted on The Hollywood Ham. But don't get too excited about it because it's clearly a hoax. The author has no apparent credentials and the quotes attributed to George Lucas are silly, for example saying that he wants to revive the movie so he can ruin fans' memories of the original.

December 21, 2008

Small Town Folk will have its American DVD release on February 3, 2009 - that's Warwick's birthday, a nice coincidence. The disk will have the same features as the UK version: Audio Commentary, Folk Tales: A Grockumentary, Rollin' & Tumblin' Music Video, and Trailer. There is one unfortunate difference: the American DVD will be full screen instead of widescreen. But at least we'll finally get to see the movie! It's available for pre-order on Amazon.com and elsewhere.

Prince Caspian was released on DVD in early December. The collectors edition includes an 11-minute featurette called Warwick Davis: The Man Behind Nikabrik. I haven't actually seen this featurette but I've heard that it's good.

The world of independent filmmaking is fraught with uncertainty. Some projects languish for years before they are finally completed, and some never get made at all. Deucalion has been in limbo for a couple of years, and now Warison Media (the production company) has removed the official page for the movie from their website, so it looks like the project might be on the scrap heap at this point. I wrote to the production company to ask for information but didn't get a response.

Tis the season for panto in merry olde England, and Warwick is doing his usual holiday duty playing the role of Prof in Snow White. This year's production is at the Regent Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent and runs from December 11 to January 11. Warwick is also serving as co-director.

Warwick has received a number of odd pop-culture tributes, and now here's another one: a Chicago-area Rock-Psychedelic-Experimental band called We Are Warwick Davis. Their MySpace page is here.

For today's final news item, you can check out the December 6 interview on Dark Mark.

November 30, 2008

The second season of Celebrity Scissorhands aired recently, and Warwick made an appearance on the show along with his children. Warwick received a haircut this time around instead of giving them. Check out this page on his website for information and photos.

Click here for a November 1 video interview at a DVD signing for Small Town Folk. Warwick talks about Small Town Folk (of course) and also about Leprechaun.

October 30, 2008

More information has been released about the upcoming Leprechaun comic book. According to Bluewaters Productions:

“Leprechaun” will be written by another Lionsgate alum Zach Hunchar, who just finished writing Insane Jane for Bluewater. “Leprechaun” is an immensely popular horror franchise and I’m excited about expanding the mythos. It takes two of my favorite things … Ireland and horror. I’m extremely excited to continue to explore the things that scare me and entertain me. I’m very happy Bluewater chose me for this task.” “Leprechaun” the comic series is a tale of revenge and mayhem. This is the tale of Lubdan, the king and sole survivor of the Leprechaun. The last of the Leprechauns! A treasure dealer stumbles across his pot of gold and steals it. In this modern age, he finds buyers all over the planet through on-line auctions. Iubdan finds the thief after the gold is shipped to humans across the globe. Unbeknownst to Iubdan, the Cluracan, a war-like race intent on genocide, helped the human find the gold. A new curse is discovered that weakens Iubdan while he is not in possession of the gold and will eventually kill him if he does not recover them all in enough time. He quickly realizes he cannot locate the gold without help. The treasure dealer’s last sale was to a computer expert, who agrees to help Lubdan, in exchange for his life. Together, they race against time to learn of the gold’s locations. Lubdan’s quest takes him all over the planet, across time and space. Battling greed, the genocidal Cluracan and new mystical adversaries, Lubdan must save all life to save himself. Kris Carter will draw “Leprechaun”. And Micheal Kingston will be writing the 2nd story arch.

The comic book will be released sometime in 2009. They've dipped into Irish legend for their storyline, since Lubdan was indeed the name of a Leprechaun king and the Cluracan (aka clurichaun) are a race of Leprechaun-like beings. Naturally, the comic book storyline deviates quite significantly from the old legends.

October 18, 2008

Warwick has instituted a new Personal Appearances section here on his official webpage. I previously attempted to keep up with this sort of thing here on my own webpage but I never had particularly good sources of information so it was far from complete. I'm off the hook now that Warwick is posting this information so I won't make any particular effort to keep up with my appearances page unless it's brought to my attention that something needs to be listed.

However, I do have one appearance to report that is not currently listed on Warwick's page. The Small Town Folk official webpage reports that Warwick will be doing a DVD signing on November 1 at the Borders store in Bournemouth, UK. There's a video ad for the event here.

I recently received an email from a fan who said he ordered an autographed picture from the Shop on Warwick's official site, and received it promptly with an awesome customized message. Thanks to Roger Nelson for the tip - he highly recommends this service

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September 17, 2008

Back around 1993, Trimark Pictures published a limited edition Leprechaun comic book in conjunction with the release of the first Leprechaun movie. This 8-page book showed Dan O'Grady taking the Leprechaun's gold and the Leprechaun running amok in Ireland as a result, before finally stowing away on a plane to America.The artwork wasn't very good and the quality of the printing was so poor that it was a bit difficult to read. Attempts to scan it didn't work out well so it isn't displayed on this website.

And for years that was the only Leprechaun comic in existence, but things are about to change. Bluewater Productions has acquired the comic book rights to the Leprechaun and plans to release something in 2009. It isn't clear whether it will be a single issue or a series.

On the Bluewater website it says:

Lionsgate is the leading independent producer and distributor of motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment, family entertainment, video-on-demand and digitally delivered content. Its prestigious and prolific library of nearly 12,000 motion picture titles and television episodes is a stable source of recurring revenue and is a foundation for the growth of the company’s core businesses. Bluewater is producing comic properties based on the hit films “Leprechaun” and “Warlock” to be launched in early 2009.

And this September 8 story on Publishers Weekly says:

[Darren G.] Davis has plans to expand his licensing efforts further, having picked up the rights to the movies of director Roger Corman, the 1950s serial Tom Corbett: Space Cadet and horror films such as director Mark Jones’s Leprechaun (1992) and director Steve Miner’s Warlock (1989). Bluewater also is looking into licensing classic TV properties from the 1980s. “It makes sense for us because people will see that we’re doing Leprechaun and people will go, ‘I can trust that brand,’ so they’ll pick up The 10th Muse,” Davis says.

It isn't clear what the new Leprechaun comic will be like. Will it be a rehash of the movie(s) or something original? I'm hoping for something original myself, but time will tell.

September 14, 20088

For a good time, check out this recent update on the official Warwick Davis website. It features a rather scary picture!

Also check out this YouTube video from Disney's Star Wars Weekend. The video is called "Warwick responds to an Ewok hater". It's obviously staged, and quite funny.

August 14, 2008

Our hope for Leprechaun 7 just got dimmer...

About a year and a half ago, director Darren Lynn Bousman posted an entry on his Myspace blog saying that he wanted to direct Lep 7and was asking Lions Gate to greenlight the movie. There was some other low-key publicity, but it didn't attract a whole lot of internet attention until a couple of days ago, when MTV and various other sites picked up the story.

Bousman responded by essentially RETRACTING THE WHOLE THING. In this new entry on his Myspace blog, he says

Bousman Wants More Leprechaun???? Ahhh, the internet... I awake this morning to see the net abuzz with my two attachments this morning - first to MOTHERS DAY, then to Leprechaun... Jesus PEOPLE... Come on... Seriously? First off, YES I did say I wanted to revamp Leprechaun... But the context was in the form of a short film... I was approached to do a series of short films at one point. They were these comedy shorts. When I asked if I had any ideas I said "What about Leprechaun in the old west". As if this was some sort of news... Mind you, this was after Saw II. While promoting Repo - people have asked me about it... I joke with all of them... HELL YES, Leprechaun in the old west... I guess, I am a quasi public figure, so anything is fair game, but SERIOUSLY...

This is completely different from what he said last year, and I guess the moral of the story is "don't trust people in Hollywood." Oh well, if he actually spoke to Lions Gate about it or if they get a whiff of the latest round of publicity, then the series will have been brought to to their attention again.

Thanks to Benoit Rouleau for the tip.

August 1, 2008

Warwick always has a number of projects under development, and now he has a new one! Life's Too Short is a comic "documentary" about Warwick's life in England following his failure to establish a Hollywood career as a serious leading man. You can watch a 7½ minute teaser video on YouTube.

This video was posted by Warwick himself under the user ID warwickdavistalent. He also posted a second video on YouTube called Introducing a Legend: Warwick Davis. This tongue-in-cheek video looks like it was probably used at a Disney Star Wars Weekend or some other personal appearance. Will Warwick post any more videos on YouTube? Time will tell!

Shortfellas is reportedly closer to being financed than ever before. It looks like it will be a fun movie, so let's hope they get the money matters straightened out soon.

June 22, 2008

The official Warwick Davis website recently opened an online store where you can order autographed pictures!

I've added a variety of Prince Caspian publicity photos gleaned from the internet. You can view them here. The movie's Filmography section has some new commentary on the Nikabrik makeup from the movie's production notes.

A few new articles and interviews have appeared on the web. MTV Movies Blog published a pair of them; the first, about Warwick's enthusiasm for the idea of a Willow sequel is here, and the second, about Harry Potter, is here. Thanks to Paul Smith telling me about the second one.

Be sure to check out the June 16, 2008 entry on this blog belonging to director Brian Trenchard-Smith telling the story of how Leprechaun 4 was greenlighted. He's told the story before, but this is an extended version. Best of all, he says that more tales from the world of Lep will follow, so keep an eye on that blog!

Gonna be in Florida next weekend? Warwick will be hosting the Disney Star Wars Weekend in Orlando on June 27-29. According to the Coolwaters Productions website, he'll be appearing at the Antiquities Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace on August 22-24. Sounds like a Leprechaun 3 moment, doesn't it? But I suspect that this is an error, since Warwick is scheduled to appear at Collectormania Glasgow on that same weekend and the Collectormania website seems rather certain about it.

April 27, 2008

There hasn't been a lot of news lately, but here are a couple of interesting items. UK fans can now order Small Town Folk on DVD. It's available at Amazon.co.uk and probably other places as well. The release date is June 23.

The release of Prince Caspian is coming up on May 16. Narniaweb.com has printed a Total Magazine interview with the director that includes this information:

"Right away Andrew started pursuing Peter Dinklage and Warwick Davis for Trumpkin and Nikabrik. Peter is just wearing a nose, gelatine ears, hairpieces and paint. But Warwick is completely covered! Even his lips are covered. I'd say his eyelids are the only thing that are his actual skin in that make-up, because Warwick Davis is very recognisable and I was absolutely frank with him about that. We sat down and I said, 'Listen, my feeling is that everyone knows who Warwick is. He's the Willow guy! We don't want that - let me go to town.' I looked at the make-ups that disguised him in other films, but I felt they always looked stiff and didn't allow him to perform. There's one make-up in particular in the first Harry Potter where it looked 10in thick. We did 20 different designs from young to old and Andrew went for the most gnarly, old, messed-up one."

February 23, 2008

Did you know there are surprising similarities between Death Wish and the Leprechaun series? Go here to read all about it.

If you go here, you can watch a video of Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter series) with Warwick on Celebrity Scissorhands.

The Personal Appearances section has been updated to include Warwick's appearance at the Disability Film Festival on February 17th, and an appearance at Collectormania Glasgow that's coming up in August.

January 20, 2008

Here are some new pictures for everyone to look at: some new panto pictures in Other Pictures Part 3, and some screen captures from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. That's all for this update!