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Cinefantastique: Leprechaun 3 |
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Fans of the LEPRECHAUN movie series can expect a little something extra in LEPRECHAUN 3 - comedy. Director Brian Trenchard-Smith (THE QUEST, DEAD END DRIVE IN, NIGHT OF THE DEMONS II) noted, "I looked at the other LEPRECHAUN pictures and, while I thought they were fine pieces of work in their own right, they lacked enough Leprechaun. We are going to try and give the people more of what they enjoy." Trimark plans to open the new sequel in April.
British actor Warwick Davis (RETURN OF THE JEDI) is back for his third star turn as the Leprechaun and is pleased with the direction this film is taking. "The Leprechaun in this movie is seen in a totally different light," says Davis. "He's in a casino among the general public and you see their reactions to him."
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| Michael Callahan as Mitch, the sleazy Las Vegas casino owner, who gets done in by his malfunctioning sexual gratification robot, effects by Gabe Bartalos. |
Noted director Trenchard-Smith, "This is a bizarre opportunity to bring a sense of fun to the LEPRECHAUN concept. I thought I'd make it more of a comedy-horror than a horror-comedy."
John Gatlin (WITCHBOARD II) portrays a college student who loses his tuition money in Las Vegas. To win his money back Gatlin wishes on the Leprechaun's gold and finds himself slowly turning into one of the dwarfish gremlins. "I think the whole concept is outstanding and this is nothing against the other movies," said Gatlin. "But this one has the elements the other ones didn't have - from comedy to two monsters as opposed to one."
Davis said he also enjoyed the emphasis toward comedy. "During the film [the Leprechaun] gets to transmit his image onto a television set and performs a series of commercials mimicking actual American commercials. He does the typical sort of accident lawyer commercial, a televangelist, a shopping-channel type of salesman and a psychic lady. In all those sequences the Leprechaun changes his costume to suit each character. I was able to speak in a totally different voice, but I still had the makeup on. I enjoyed doing that."
Magic also plays an important part in the film in the form of John DeMita as Fazio, the world's worst magician, on stage at the Lucky Shamrock Casino. "In the story, if you get a single shilling, you are allowed a single wish," said DeMita. "Unfortunately, as things usually go in these films, anybody who gets that wish then gets the wrath of the Leprechaun as he tries to get back his gold. My wish is to become the greatest magician in the world. I'm given that for about... oh... five minutes." Fazio gets sawed in half for real.
DeMita, who practiced magic as a hobby when he was a kid, seems perfectly cast for the role, but after his audition he didn't think he would get the part. "When I read for the part I was told to bring some tricks in. I did the reading and I was very, very happy. But when I had to do the magic I got the worst case of flop sweat I had in my life. It was like Albert Brooks in BROADCAST NEWS. I thought I'd blown it at that point. Then I read the script again and realized, 'Wait. He's supposed to be a bad magician.'"
Part of the success of the LEPRECHAUN series must be attributed to makeup artist Gabe Bartalos who has been with the series since its beginning and helped design the look of the Leprechaun character. Noted Bartalos, "I kept trying to read them in the meetings. What was it they [the producers] were looking for? I did several sculptures and submitted them, but I still wasn't getting any signal from them. Finally I said, 'Forget it, let me just do what I would want to see.' I went back and did this big, crazed, exaggerated mug with big ears, big nose and stuff. I took photographs of it and went down there and they said 'Holy smokes, that's it.'
"Obviously once I'm done doing the makeup, Warwick does the work, but it is flattering to me that I haven't been asked to change the character too much. They were nice enough to ask me back for parts 2 and 3 as well. That's made it really rewarding."
Of his creation, Bartalos noted, "The only thing I was keeping in mind was that they were probably spending some money on the name actor, Mr. Davis, so let's exploit his acting features. Let's put what they pay for on the screen. Let's make this makeup, as theatrical as it it, still very mobile and enable him to do his full expressions through it."
Bartalos had nothing but praise for Davis. "He learned what he has to do to make the makeup read what the camera needs to see. That's really important because some people get smothered under it and just sit there. He [Davis] really worked with it. He studied the films."
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| Warwick Davis in makeup by Gabe Bartalos as the Leprechaun, horror played for laughs against the glitzy setting of Las Vegas. Inset: Davis in the makeup chair for a daily three-hour makeover. |
After three films Bartalos and Davis have developed a good working relationship. It takes approximately three hours to apply Davis' Leprechaun makeup and another 35 minutes to take it off. The two have become good friends. Noted Bartalos, "I was joking with his wife Samantha that she has to vie for time now. I probably know him better than she does!"
Bartalos also supervised the film's special effects with assistants Mike McCarty, Clay Martinez and Sam DeLatore. "They were the core people in helping us achieve some of the sophisticated effects such as the Lorretta character whose boobs and butt expand and explode," said Bartalos. Other effects include a robot woman who is a sexual partner to the sleazy casino owner, Mitch, that "basically turns into just a bizarre mechanical anatomy of a woman," said Bartalos. Naturally, LEPRECHAUN 3 also has its share of ripped-off ears and bitten-off toes.
With Gatlin's character slowly turning into a Leprechaun throughout the film, Bartalos kept busy. Noted Gatlin, "I have four stages of makeup. The fourth stage takes about an hour and a half to two hours. But often when we were filming I'd go from stage four back to normal Scott. That's a lot of time in the chair to get the makeup off and go back to regular straight makeup. It's tough, but that's what made the role challenging."
The role presented other challenges as well. Said Gatlin smiling, "As an actor you sometimes do research. If you're going to play a baseball player in a movie you go out and hit baseballs. But if you're gonna play a leprechaun you're on your own. I am really excited about this film because of the range of the character. I get to play a normal, funny, cocky young kid and a monster all at the same time."
LEPRECHAUN 3 was filmed non-union to save money and Australian director Trenchard-Smith noted some similarities between Australian and American filmmaking. "Working non-union in America is sort of like working regular in Australia," he said. "There is a young enthusiasm that powers the non-union industry here. People are grateful and delighted to be working on a film, even for slave wages. I've had a fairly successful run with low-budget pictures all my life. Many of them are quite profitable. That has kept me pegged in the low-budget area."
That isn't to say there aren't some problems now and again for the Australian-born filmmaker. "You might say that Australia and America are two countries divided by a common language. If I want to erase something from a page of notes that I've been writing in pencil and I call across the office for a 'rubber,' this causes some concern in an American office. In an Australian office they immediately pass me an eraser."
Asked about the budget for LEPRECHAUN 3, Trenchard-Smith replied, "That is a state secret, but you can draw your own conclusions with 14 days of main shooting and two days of second unit. They scaled back to the barest minimum for the picture to be operational, but we've managed to work within that, and we are on schedule and inside our contingency."
Budget constraints notwithstanding, Trenchard-Smith is pleased with the result. "To create Las Vegas and shoot seven and a half pages a day on a regular basis, day and night with a lot of physical action is hard. We think we've managed to get a bit of style into the picture due to the excellent cinematography of our two cameramen," said Trenchard-Smith.
One of the greatest challenges for the director was the film's climax which takes place in the showroom of the Lucky Shamrock. "Doing the climax in one night involved the Leprechaun sawing the magician in half with a chainsaw, the audience panicking, all 60 people flooding out of the room, and our heroes rushing off the stage - one of them wearing full-scale prosthetic makeup because he too is becoming a Leprechaun. There is also a battle of magic and wits between Scott [Gatlin] and the Leprechaun [Davis]. That was a tall order in one day. We did 56 setups that day but it's not my record. I did 66 in one day on MISSION IMPOSSIBLE."
Summed up Trenchard-Smith, "What the Leprechaun does is let peoples' greed get the better of them and that enables him to get them." Time will tell whether or not LEPRECHAUN 3 hits the jackpot.
