There's still no word on when Warwick's Extras episode will get its first US showing; the HBO website for the series is forecasting reruns of the first season through November 25th at least. The BBC2 website had the episode available for a week after the initial UK broadcast in September, but I could never get it to work for me and it's no longer available there. But fear not; the episode is available online for anyone who hasn't seen it yet or wants to see it again. YouTube has it in three segments, available here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. [Obsolete links removed]

Extras is a comedy, not a reverent tribute to its celebrity guests, so the script doesn't attempt to portray their personalities realistically or idealistically. Instead the guest stars go for laughs by presenting themselves in an exaggerated and usually unflattering way. Anyone who appears in this series needs to be able to laugh at themselves!  In this episode we see Warwick as a hot-tempered fellow with a tall fiancée (they don't say what became of his wife!), and Daniel Radcliffe as a horny teenager who spends every spare moment trying to score with older women. It's a hoot, and I recommend that everyone who's old enough and tough enough to accept a little raunchiness and rough language go watch the show!

A whole slew of interviews related to the DVD release of the Star Wars classic trilogy appeared recently,  including these articles on YourMovies.com.au, Empire Online, TimeOut, Sheffield Today (later renamed The Star), and a 20-minute audio interview on IGN. The Articles section also has a humorous Ewok-related interview from The Dandy #3383, provided by Thomas Ward.

Click here for yet another interview. It's part of Mugglecast #47 from July 9, 2006 and is still available on the original website. But it's a little difficult to find since it's in the middle of a larger podcast, so I've taken the liberty of reprinting it in the Articles section. Harry Potter is the main topic, but there's also some discussion of the Leprechaun series and of Warwick's interest in podcasting and the possibility of doing his proposed Small Talk show in that format. The article discusses the reason for his appearance change in the third Harry Potter movie and Warwick's theory about who the new Flitwick really is.  There's a lively discussion of old vs. new Flitwick on this Leaky Lounge message board.

There's news about Warwick's upcoming indy film Deucalion. Filming was expected to begin in October 2006 in northern New Mexico, until the funding fell through. But now they have a new investor as well as a new producer on board, and they expect to shoot in 2007.  There's still no confirmation of Val Kilmer's participation in the movie. Strangely enough, I found some old references from Spring 2006 indicating that Alice Cooper was going to be in the movie, but since he's not currently being mentioned it seems likely that it fell through. Now THAT is a shame!

A forum for Deucalion and other Warison Media movies was recently set up here. [Obsolete link removed] There are also some video clips related to the movie on YouTube. There's sort of a trailer (apparently using temporary actors) and a couple of audition tapes. Warwick doesn't appear at all, but the clips give you an idea of what the movie will be like and a preview of a few scenes.

Thanks to BinaryRooster for notifying me that the Gremlins ad campaign for literacy is once again running in the UK. Television ads were scheduled to run from September 4th to October 1st, and radio ads from September 11th to October 29th. One of the TV ads features Warwick as a gremlin whose head explodes graphically after his attempt to taunt an office worker fails. This highly entertaining ad can be viewed here on the campaign's official website; it's the one called Bubblegum. A few new pictures are also available and have been added to Other Pictures Part 3. Some of these pictures appear to use models based on Warwick rather than actual actors.

There's one final news item and then this long update will finally be over. Warwick appeared at the Chessington World of Adventures near London on October 7th and 8th.

September 25, 2006

The official Warwick Davis website recently reported the UK air date for his guest appearance on the comedy series Extras. That will be September 28th at 9 PM on BBC2 in the UK.  HBO Comedy airs this series in the US, but there's no word yet on when they'll start airing the new season's episodes.  Their published schedule calls for reruns of Season 1 through October 21.

Warwick talks about his Extras appearance in a recent interview on Peterborough Today.

Thanks to BinaryRooster for providing an interview from Issue 11 of Xbox 360 magazine! Warwick reveals an unexpected side as he talks about his interest in video games.

Thanks also to Paul Smith for providing a link to an audio interview on BBC Radio One from September 2006, dealing with Harry Potter among other subjects. I'm unable to listen to this interview myself since it requires RealPlayer and my computer refuses to work with it. So somebody please tell me about it if any significant news is revealed in the interview! (Note: I later discovered that the BBC had a mixup and was playing an Adam Sandler interview instead of Warwick's interview. So I've changed the link to lead you to a copy of the interview on Warwick's official website.)

There's a related interview on The Sun Online.

Warwick is scheduled to appear at the second Norwich Sci-Fi, Film, Toy & Collectors’ Fair On November 12 in Norwich, England.

September 10, 2006

The most exciting updates are the ones that include insider information, and today's update is one of those. Back in June, Brian Trenchard-Smith (the director of Lep 3 and 4) posted some comments on IMDB's Lep 4 board. Since then I've traded some email with him, and his IMDb comments are reprinted here with his permission. He also provided an exclusive picture showing a behind the scenes shot of the Lep 4 crew on board the spaceship. Thanks Brian for all your help!

That's not the only Leprechaun news. I've added a HorrorHound magazine article about the custom Lep figure commissioned by Warwick Davis.

I've also added a picture of Warwick at a convention with the figure. The person who sent this in said they found it on a message board. I don't normally post unattributed pictures, but this one was so interesting that I couldn't resist. I'll take it down if the real owner objects to it appearing here.

In a bit of belated non-Leprechaun news, Warwick was originally scheduled to appear at DragonCon in Atlanta during the first weekend in September but cancelled his appearance about a week before the event. Since several other Harry Potter 5 actors cancelled at the same time, it looks like a change in the movie's shooting schedule was the reason. Thanks to Paul Smith for the tip.

August 26, 2006

Attention, UK horror fans. The current issue of GoreZone magazine hit store shelves on August 11th. The August 2006 issue (#11) includes two articles on the Leprechaun series written by me, credited in the table of contents as "Connie Lep". The Leprechaun is on the cover of the magazine, in the form of a small picture at the top of the page. Pick up a copy while they're easy to find!

In other article news, Sci-Fi Online has a brief interview with Warwick discussing his desire to appear on Doctor Who. Warwick also talks about his appearance on Ricky Gervais' Extras.

I've added a couple Harry Potter 4 audio clips to the Warwick Davis Soundclips, including one deleted-scene moment. As with all my soundclips, a considerable amount of sound quality has been sacrificed to keep the file sizes small.

July 30, 2006

Check out Warwick Davis Other Pictures Part 7 for some rare pictures sent in by Christine De Los Rios (thanks, Christine!). I'm not completely sure what they are, but I suspect that they're from Warwick's 1991 appearance on the US cable series The New Zorro. Warwick played the leader of a travelling circus who liked to spend his spare time stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. I didn't know anything about this guest shot until years after the series had gone off the air, so I've never seen it. Warwick has played a member of a 19th century travelling circus on at least two other occasions (in the movie The New Adventures of Pinocchio and in an episode of the BBC's Murder Rooms) but these photos are not from either one of those.

Christine also provided a helpful hint: searching for "Warwick Davis" on youtube.com turns up a variety of short videos featuring you-know-who. If you click here you'll get the results without having to do the search yourself. Currently a lot of the videos are from Warwick's stint as host of Disney World's Star Wars Weekends in June. It's easy to see why he's so popular at events like this!

Here are a couple of links for diehard fans who like to read every single scrap about Warwick that they can find. Peterborough today has an article about Warwick's work at a fundraiser for Holme Pre-School two weeks ago, and another story about the Peterborough Children's Film Awards on July 6th. Warwick was on hand to help present the awards, along with fellow Harry Potterite Daniel Radcliffe and Chewbacca from Star Wars (they didn't say who played the part of Chewie).

July 23, 2006

At long last I've put some screen captures from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire online! You can see them in Harry Potter Pictures Part 3. They include pictures from the deleted-scene portion of the Yule Ball, as well as a behind the scenes shot from one of the DVD documentaries.

July 8, 2006

The picture at left is a sneak preview of page one of a Leprechaun article I wrote for the UK horror mag GoreZone. The Leprechaun is scheduled to be the cover story for Issue #11 (to be released on August 11), and the issue includes two Lep stories written by yours truly. You can click on the picture for a larger image. Click here to visit the GoreZone website.

If you haven't been to the Warwick Davis Official Website recently, now would be a good time to drop by for a visit because Warwick posted three news stories earlier this week. The top story is about his guest shot in episode three of the next season of Ricky Gervais' comedy series Extras, which airs in the UK on BBC2 and in the US on HBO Comedy. Daniel Radcliffe, aka Harry Potter himself, is also in the episode. The air date is unknown at this point.

Warwick's second news story is a humorous film clip that Ricky Gervais came up with during the filming of the Extras episode. It's a good-luck message to the English World Cup team and has Warwick and Stephen Merchant impersonating members of the team.

With so many stories appearing at the same time, the third one was pushed off the main page but you can see it here. It's about Warwick's upcoming appearance at a charity event on July 16 and the auction of a special Harry Potter prop at that event.

And now for the story of a movie that will probably never be made, but I wish that it would be! M.J. Simpson sent me this fake poster for Piranhas on an Escalator, the imaginary sequel to the very real Snakes on a Plane starring Samuel L. Jackson. Sammy L. returns in this 'sequel' which also stars John Stamos, Lily Tomlin, Julia Roberts, Joaquin Phoenix, Treat Williams, Kirk Cameron, and Warwick Davis. This poster and other fun fakes originally came from the Redfield Arts page.

The Lions Gate email address for the Lep 7 campaign is not currently functional, and I can't find a working email address at this time. So if you'd like to write to them and your email won't go through, here are some alternatives. Write to them the old-fashioned way at

Lionsgate
2700 Colorado Ave.
Santa Monica, CA 90404

Or send a fax to (310) 255-3870

June 25, 2006

Recently several people have written to tell me about the fake Leprechaun vs.Wishmaster trailer located here on Fangoria.com. It's such a popular item that Ain't It Cool News reported on it here. Now remember, folks - THIS IS A FAKE.

On July 16th Warwick will host the Holme Preschool Family Fun Day, a charity event benefiting the Holme Village Pre-School near Peterborough, UK. The event will include an auction of signed photographs and a Harry Potter film prop donated by Warner Brothers. See Warwick's official website for more information.

June 17, 2006

The Leprechaun has suddenly become popular with the publishing industry. HorrorHound magazine is a new publication dealing primarily with horror collectibles, and issue #2 (Summer 2006) has an interview with Warwick Davis about his upcoming Leprechaun figurine. The magazine is available at Borders Books and Hot Topic stores, and can be ordered online here. The official site has some additional material that didn't make it into the print magazine here.

The UK magazine GoreZone (not related to the old US GoreZone magazine or Gorezone.net) is planning to feature the Leprechaun as its cover story for issue #11, to be released in August. They asked me to write an article or two for the issue!

The Leprechaun was the subject of a recent Ebay auction of a rare collectible bust, and you can see the pictures in the Leprechaun Art section. Reportedly there were only ten of these made, and this is the third one I've seen for sale on Ebay.

Another fan-provided photo has been added to Other Pictures Part 8. Guy Pearce met Warwick on October 8, 2005 at a signing at an Athena store in Brighton. Guy gave Warwick a Beeker Muppet doll and sent me a great photo of the event.

According to the Coolwaters Productions website, Warwick will be at DragonCon in Atlanta on September 1-4.

June 7, 2006

Warwick has landed the title role in an upcoming indie film called Deucalion. The producers are trying to get Val Kilmer to appear in the film as well, and if they succeed we can all enjoy seeing the onscreen reunion of two actors that we haven't seen together since Willow. The movie's official website is here but mostly contains teaser material at the moment. Pay them a visit, then go to my Filmography section on the movie to learn more about it.

Here's a bit of Leprechaun fun. According to a May 31 article on SF Weekly, noise artist Noel von Harmonson got his start in the genre with a tribute to the Leprechaun series. Harmonson says, "I was working at the record store, and someone turned in this boxed set of the Leprechaun movies, called Pot of Gore. And I thought, 'Why does this exist?' I realized I would make a tribute to each Leprechaun movie - if Pot of Gore exists, it's just as reasonable for a [noise] tribute campaign to exist." He released four cassette tapes, in hand-printed quantities of 30. "It got reviewed in Arthur, and the Midwest noise guys were into it." Thanks to Matt Pamatmat for the tip!

May 29, 2006

Today's update begins with a little Leprechaun music. The song is a fan tribute by Sav, and you can read about it and listen to it here.

The Star Wars Weekends are currently underway at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, with the second weekend of this event just completed. Warwick is hosting all four weekends this year, and he spent several weeks planning events and getting ready for the shows. There's a report on the first weekend here on Warwick's official website. There's also a report on Starwars.com that includes a picture gallery with several pictures of Warwick, and four audio interviews. The interviews offer two choices, Play and Download. The Play option doesn't work for me, but Download works just fine. There are also some fan reports on this Star Wars Weekends news site, and the two Weekend 1 reports by Amy talk enthusiastically about Warwick. Her reports have several pictures and also detail his on-stage efforts to take over the role of Indiana Jones now that Harrison Ford is getting a bit old for the part.

Here's a description of the FM TV pilot that has appeared in various places on the internet:

When an indie radio station is taken over by a huge commercial media conglomerate, night-time DJ Lindsay Carol, co-presenter Dom Cox and their feisty producer know their days of revolutionary radio are numbered. Facing a bland, censored future, the team take action and barricade themselves into the studio to broadcast one last show in their own inimitable style, before they are fired and left pondering on the future. FM stars Dean Lennox Kelly (Shameless), Raquel Cassidy (Teachers), Matt King (Peep Show), Robin Weaver (Green Wing), Daisy Haggard (Man Stroke Woman) and Phil Nichol (Broken News) as well as Hollywood actor Warwick Davis (Harry Potter, Willow, Return of the Jedi).

The indie horror film Small Town Folk hasn't been released yet, but the filmmakers recently showed a new trailer at the Cannes film festival. You can read all about it and see the trailer (which has Warwick in it!) on the movie's offical website.

May 9, 2006

One of the benefits of this webpage is that I occasionally make the acquaintance of people in show business, and I recently met up via email with Jeff Mallian, the producer of Lep 1. He was kind enough to tell me a few things about his participation in the movie, which you can read about here in the Leprechaun Articles section.

I've also been talking to Dave Tripet, the executive in charge of production for the first three movies, who has provided me with quite a lot of movie information in the past. He lives near SOTA Toys and recently checked with them to see if there was any progress on the Lep 1 figurine they're making. Although there was really nothing new to see or report, they did say they expect to have it ready in time for Christmas. You can read more about this figure in the Leprechaun Merchandise section.

Just a few days ago, Warwick was once again the guest of honor at the Stilton Cheese Rolling Festival, and you can see pictures of the event here on the Stilton Village website. There's also a unique photo here in the Warwick Davis Other Pictures section, provided by Tom Maxwell who took part in the Cheese Rolling Championship with his friends Jim Smith, Mark Rye, Paul Mason, and Alan Forrest.

Warwick has updated his Official Website to give the air date for the pilot episode of the UK sitcom F.M. It's Wednesday May 10th at 11:40 PM on UK Channel 4.

April 3, 2006

If you've already read yesterday's update you need to read the second half again because the Willow report has been significantly changed.

April 2, 2006

There's been quite a lot of news in the last week, some of it great and some of it just plain weird. Let's start out with the good stuff.

The Official Warwick Davis Website posted two updates this week. The first one announced that Warwick will be hosting this year's Star Wars Weekends event at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. At first I assumed this meant that he would be the primary Star Wars guest during one weekend, but I was wrong. Starting May 19, he'll be the emcee for ALL of the four consecutive weekends that this event lasts. Warwick's Florida fans are going to have plenty of opportunities to see him! Go to Disney's Star Wars Weekends page for more information.

Warwick's next update announced the launch of the official website for the upcoming Britcom F.M., in which Warwick plays radio deejay Dom Cox (whose attributes include a recent nomination for 'Rear of the Year'). You can check out the official website here. You navigate by moving your cursor on the case of record albums pictured on the left side of the screen and clicking on its stickers. If this is too tricky (it was awkward for me) you can click here to see the publicity materials that I have shamelessly lifted from the official site and the production company's site.

Heather Ballmer located another picture from her Leprechaun-impersonator days and kindly sent it to me to post on the page. You can see it here. The picture shows Heather marching in the San Diego Saint Patrick's Day parade in costume as the Leprechaun and flashing a little thigh. That's something the real Leprechaun never did!

Putting rumors to rest department...

On April 1st, Starwars.com posted a prominent announcement on their front page which led to a story saying that Willow/Shadow Wars had been merged into Star Wars by literally making the Willow world a planet in the Star Wars galaxy. On April 3rd this large announcement was removed and a small disclaimer was added to the April 1 story saying that it was all an April Fools joke. Because the original announcement was very noticeable and the retraction wasn't all that easy to find, this is probably going to create rumors and wrong impressions that will take years to die away, if they ever do at all. This may do something to increase the sales of the Willow sequel novels, but it doesn't strike me as a very nice way to treat the fans of either Star Wars or Willow.

I'm not going to discuss the details of the hoax in detail here, because printing them would encourage misunderstandings and the spread of rumors. But you can read all about it here on Starwars.com.

March 28, 2006

I've known for a long time that there were a lot of 'Leprechaun's helpers' back in the 90s. The Lep 2 Theatrical Overview gives the details of so many personal appearances by the Leprechaun (including several on the same day in far-apart cities) that Warwick Davis couldn't possibly have done them all himself. The first movie also used assistant Leprechauns in its ad campaign and now, for the first time, we have some direct information on this from Heather Ballmer, who impersonated the Leprechaun to promote the first movie.

When Heather got the call, she was 20 and working at radio station 91X in San Diego. The morning deejays at the time were Berger and Prescott, with Prescott being the brother of Leprechaun producer Michael Prescott. Naturally, the station was asked to help promote the film and they were involved in the movie's local premiere.

Heather worked in promotions for the station and was asked to help promote the movie by playing the Leprechaun in the San Diego St. Patrick's Day parade. They needed someone small enough to fit into the costume, and Heather (pushing 5'2") was their only hope since the only other person who was the right size refused to do it.

Heather had to wear her own shorts because the purple pants that came with the costume were too big, but other than that it fit well enough. Heather walked in the parade as the Leprechaun, but she confesses that the mask was too hot and she only put it on a few times during the parade. She sent me two great pictures of herself in costume, which can be seen in the new Leprechaun Impersonators section in Leprechaun Miscellaneous

Now for some updates on a few of Warwick's current projects. The finishing touches are still being put on F.M. and a transmission date has not been set although they're aiming for May. The best place to read about this British TV comedy is still this article on Warwick's official website. Warwick has now added a picture to the article, so be sure to check it out!

Warwick was set to play the part of Mr. Rossi in The Lesbian Vampire Killers but the movie has been put on indefinite hold for now. Let's hope that they can get everything together and go ahead with the project, because it looks like this is going to be a weird one!

Small Town Folk is currently receiving the all-important CG finishing touches and is also being scored. The movie will be out soon, with plans to hit film festivals later in the year. In the meantime, there's a brand-new Small Town Folk MySpace page which can be visited at www.myspace.com/smalltownfolk. Join up and become a friend of the movie!

There's a bit of appearance news too. Warwick is scheduled to appear at the Elf Fantasy Fair on April 22-23 in Haarzuilens, Netherlands.

March 17, 2006

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all! Naturally, today's update is all about the Leprechaun.

For starters, the Lep 1 Behind the Scenes Pictures Gallery has been expanded to include more than 130 new pictures, due to the recent discovery of another box of production slides. I rescanned the old slides too and ran them through the excellent image-processing software that I bought recently, so the color and detail are much better than before. I made the pictures bigger too, just because I could! Thanks to Dave Tripet for his help in acquiring these pictures.

Thanks also to Dave for tipping me off about this next item. The March 10, 2006 issue of Entertainment Weekly printed a list of the 25 worst movie sequels of all time, and Lep 6 came in at number 3! This is actually something to proud of, in a weird kind of way. There are no other low-budget straight-to-video movies in the list. In fact, Lep 6 is keeping company with such illustrious series as The Matrix, Star Wars, and The Godfather. Here's how EW described Lep 6:

"I personally tuned out after Leprechaun 1, which featured outstanding work by Jennifer Aniston. But who'da thunk it would take them so long to come up with the idea of mixing Irish stereotypes and African-American ones? Equal parts funky fresh and severed flesh, this sixth chapter has America's favorite troll smoking weed and hunting the homeboys who stole his pot o'gold. If a movie could spark a race riot, this is it."

Hmm, it doesn't sound like they actually hate it all that much. Not that you can take anything they say too seriously; that bit about Jennifer Aniston has to be sarcasm. In any event, this publicity can't hurt the Leprechaun series even though they're dissing the movie. EW is a mainstream publication, and their mention of the Lep will probably cause some new viewers to check out the series and turn into fans.

Here's the rest of the list, from least bad to most bad and reading down the columns. Notice that Warwick actually has two movies on this list. He must feel so honored!

Be sure to go visit the Official Warwick Davis Website today. Warwick has posted a great St. Patrick's Day update including a special audio message from the Leprechaun. His custom Lep figure has been completed now and today's update has pictures of the painted figure. It looks great! There's no word yet on how fans can get one, but he says it'll be available soon.

March 12, 2006

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is now available on DVD, in some countries at least. Apparently the regular-edition disk gives you the movie and nothing else, in either full screen or widescreen. However, for four dollars extra you can get a two-disk special edition (available in widescreen only) whose features include games, documentaries, and an extra-scenes library. The extra scenes are quite nice, and Warwick is prominently featured in one of them.

In the actual movie, during the Yule Ball we get a few brief glimpses of Flitwick conducting the orchestra for ballroom dancing. Then the scene shifts to a rock band playing, and Flitwick does a little involuntary crowdsurfing. The special edition DVD has an extended version of this. We see and hear Flitwick introduce the rock band, and we see the crowd grab Flitwick to start him on his crowdsurfing journey. One of the documentaries on the disc also shows a brief moment from the crowdsurfing rehearsal.

The band plays a complete song in this extended scene instead of the few lines we hear in the movie. The song is very silly but the band rocks and is fun to watch so this scene is a great addition.

I'll be posting HP4 screen captures and sound clips later on, so look for them in a future update.

In other news, the movie Shortfellas is expected to film sometime around September-November 2006. Warwick's wife Samantha has been cast to play the role of his wife in the film, so it's going to be a family affair.

The finishing touches are being put on the UK TV comedy F.M. A definite transmission date hasn't been set, but as soon as I learn anything more I'll post the news. Until then, the only real source of information on this program is this story on Warwick's official website.

Podcast.net says it has an online interview with Warwick here in BritPod Episode 18 for December 18, 2005, and a special update for November 29. But I have no idea what is said in these things because they never finish downloading for me! When I tried to download the interview the computer worked on it for two hours with no clue as to how much longer it was going to take. I couldn't even tell if it was really downloading or just making my computer run in circles, so I eventually gave up. The BritPod store seems to indicate that old episodes need to be purchased, so maybe that's the problem. If this works for anyone out there, please let me know if there's anything special in it!

March 5, 2006

St. Patrick's Day is less than two weeks away, so it's appropriate to start the update with a little Leprechaun fun. A 1992 article called Shamrock Shock from the UK's Shivers magazine has been added to the Leprechaun Articles. It deals with the first movie and interviews both Warwick Davis and director Mark Jones.

I've also got a great bit of Leprechaun trivia for the fans. According to Dave Tripet, the executive in charge of production for the first three movies, Leprechaun 4 originally started out as a spoof of Apollo 13. A senior Trimark executive saw the promo art for Apollo 13 and immediately had artwork made up replacing Tom Hanks' face on the poster with the Leprechaun's face, and this is what started the script work for the movie.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire gets its US DVD release on March 7th - that's two days from now. The UK release is on March 20th, so soon a lot of fans will have a reason to hurry over to their favorite DVD seller.

IMDb's Warwick Davis listing has added a couple of items that I hadn't noticed before. One is a December 2005 appearance on the Weakest Link Christmas Special in the UK. He didn't win, but lasted for a respectable period of time before being voted off! The other is a June 2005 appearance on Big Brother's Efourum, also in the UK.

On March 12, Warwick will appear at Exe-Wing Star Wars Day X at the Honiton Sports Centre in Devon. This charity event benefits the British Heart Foundation.

February 11, 2006

Today is the sixth anniversary of this webpage, and I'm proud that I've been able to keep it going and growing for so long!

To mark the occasion, I've posted this book excerpt from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - The Filming of the Douglas Adams Classic. It's an excellent book, and I recommend that Hitchhiker fans buy it so they can read the whole thing!

February 3, 2006

Happy birthday to Warwick Davis, who turns 36 today.

To celebrate the event, I have something that Leprechaun fans have been wanting for a long time, and that I've been trying to find for years - the elusive Leprechaun 2 script! But now, thanks to scriptwriters Turi Meyer and Al Septien, who provided the script, and Dave Tripet (the movie's executive in charge of production) who made all the arrangements, I finally have a copy. Now you can find at least one script for every Leprechaun movie in the Scripts section. This is a final shooting script dated December 10, 1993.

The Official Warwick Davis website recently posted an announcement about Warwick's latest television role. He plays the co-host of a late-night radio show in a new comedy called F.M., which is set to air in March 2006 on the UK's Channel 4. Warwick says that there may be a possible series. I don't know much about how the British television industry works, but it sounds like this is a pilot episode that the network will test by broadcasting it. It's said to contain vast amounts of swearing! Right now I can't find any information on this program other than what's on Warwick's page, but as the broadcast date approaches there'll probably be more publicity.

January 29, 2006

Lately there has been an increase in rumors about an upcoming Lep versus Chucky movie, so I would like to state for the record that THERE IS NOT THE SLIGHTEST SHRED OF CREDIBLE EVIDENCE that anyone in the movie industry has ever given any serious thought to making this movie.

The rumors vary from saying that the movie is in negotiation to saying that it's actually in production. If the movie was actually in production it would be listed on IMDb and talked about by other reliable sources like UpcomingHorrorMovies, and it isn't. If there were serious negotiations, some reliable source would have announced or leaked the news by this time, and that hasn't happened.

The only 'evidence' for a Lep versus Chucky movie consists of message board posts and some misinterpretations of other internet material. Anybody can say anything on a message board, and Leprechaun pranksters usually claim to either be an insider or to know an insider. Just recently someone said on a message board that Warwick Davis told him several months ago that the movie was being negotiated. Although it's possible that this guy might have really met Warwick, I don't believe that Warwick told him anything of the sort. Warwick is frequently asked about Leprechaun movies, and if this was really true one or more of the following would have happened by now: Warwick would have talked about it on his webpage or in an interview, and/or he would have talked about it at a convention presentation where reliable sources would hear it and report the story, and/or he would have told it to other fans who would have reported it to reliable sources or talked about it on message boards long before this. Not to mention that an insider source would probably have told me about it by this time!

People sometimes point to this story on the Official Warwick Davis Website as proof that the movie is in the works. These people have misunderstood the article, which is in the RIDICULOUS RUMOURS section of the webpage and consists of a message written by a prankster claiming to be Warwick's son. Warwick's actual son is only two years old and far too young to write something like this.

People also sometimes point to internet trailers as proof, but these trailers are fakes or tributes made by pranksters or fans. With real movies, trailers aren't made while the movie is in preproduction; they're made when the movie is more or less complete and the advertising campaign for the release is kicking off.

If I receive any reliable information on an upcoming Lep movie, I'll report it on my webpage. Until then, don't believe everything you see on the internet!

But sometimes message boards are a source of interesting information, and here's something that I learned on one recently. The DVD for Ray offers several viewing options: the theatrical version of the movie with or without the director's commentary; the extended version, which has deleted scenes inserted into the movie but does not offer a commentary, and a separate deleted scenes section. I had never looked at the separate deleted scenes section, since I preferred to watch them inserted into the movie. But I learned on a message board that the deleted scenes section includes a director's commentary on the scenes. Furthermore, in the deleted scene of Ray and Oberon talking outside the nightclub, the director misidentifies Warwick as "Warwick Dunn". Strange but true. The director does get the name right in his commentary on the theatrical movie.

January 22, 2006

Lep fans in the UK have reason to rejoice, because Lep 4 will be released on Region 2 DVD on February 6, 2006. This is the first time the movie has ever been released in the UK, and it will be available from Amazon.co.uk and other DVD retailers.

With this release, the only Lep movie that isn't currently available in the UK is #6, Leprechaun Back 2 tha Hood. But since Leprechaun DVD releases have been occurring about once every six months for the last couple of years, it seems very likely that it will become available later this year.

I've added a few new images to Other Pictures Part 4. These are all screen captures from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy making-of documentary, showing what Warwick went through with the Marvin costume.

I've also updated Harry Potter Pictures Part 3 with a few shots of Flitwick from Goblet of Fire. There are surprisingly few pictures available considering his hilarious scene at the Yule Ball, but never fear; I'll make some more when the DVD is released.

January 15, 2006

Welcome to my first update of the new year! There's a variety of new things to enjoy.

The Warwick Davis Soundclips section now has some clips from Skinned Deep, Warwick's strangest movie to date. The Soundclips section has also been updated to include radio ads from the Gremlins adult literacy campaign in two different formats. Look for all the new stuff near the bottom of the page.

That's not all that's new for the Gremlins. I've added several new images to Other Pictures Part 3. All gremlins info is publicity material created by the Get On campaign.

The Warwick Davis Articles section now includes The Paranoid Android Revealed, from the November 2005 ArtsEast magazine. Thanks to Louise Cummings and The Cambridge News for providing me with this article and giving permission to put it on the webpage. The text of the article mostly revisits familiar territory, but contains some great pictures including a wonderful shot of Warwick with his wife and their two children.

For astrology buffs, the Astrotheme website has an astrological chart for the day Warwick was born. Sure looks different than the star charts we used in astronomy class!

For the Lep fans, I've added this poster to the Lep 2 Picture Gallery. It's from the movie's Pakistan release, where strangely enough it was called Love and Murder.

Lately I've been receiving a lot of inquiries about the status of Warwick's upcoming Leprechaun figure. So just for the record, I haven't heard any news about it recently. Everything I know is posted here, and when I learn something new I'll post the information both on the news page and in the figure section.

In today's final item, the Personal Appearances section has been updated to include the Colchester Sci Fi, Film & Sports Fair on January 29 and Empire Day on February 26. Both events are in England.

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