WWE News: WWE and Lionsgate Rebooting Classic Horror Film
By Bleachersreport
Per film site Variety, WWE Studios, WWE's floundering movie division, will be teaming with Lionsgate, one of North America's most well-known film and distribution companies, to reboot the classic horror movie Leprechaun.
The article notes,"Both Lionsgate and WWE Studios will share producing costs as well as team on marketing strategies. Lionsgate will handle distribution."
This is part of WWE's new direction after their previous strategy—filming, producing and distributing movies by themselves—backfired horribly and cost the company millions, leading to the promotion's first money-losing quarter in almost a decade.
At a recent presentation, WWE CFO George Barrios even admitted WWE Studios' performance over the past couple of years had been "a disaster."
The company have flirted with the horror genre before. See No Evil, a slasher film starring Glenn "Kane" Jacobs, which saw the star hunting down and brutally murdering a bunch of attractive young people, was released in 2005 and performed fairly well at the box office.
In more recent times, the company has purchased a horror movie script by Bobby Lee Darby and Nathan Brookes focusing on the mysterious Bermuda Triangle. Upcoming WWE film No One Lives, which stars Brodus Clay in a supporting role, is also of that genre.
Current WWE Studios head Michael Luisi was quoted for the Variety article, with the executive touting the movie divsion's relationship with Lionsgate and discussing the huge rewards in remaking a classic movie like Leprechaun:
Quote:
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We have been looking for ways to continue our relationship with Lionsgate and we saw Leprechaun as the perfect opportunity to take a well-known franchise and put a modern-day spin on it. This is a property that we believe our audience will respond to and we continue to look for ways to surprise and engage them.
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Per the report, the remake of the 1993 underground hit (which starred a young Jennifer Aniston and spawned several sequels) is tentatively set for a 2013 release. So far, no cast or crew have been announced.