This movie was supposed to launch an entire franchise. We’re talking up to six films. There was just one problem: the studio didn’t actually have the rights to make a sequel. The project got pushed back, delayed, and eventually shelved for years with almost no explanation. And when it finally saw the light of day, it barely made its money back and left horror fans completely divided. Somewhere along the way, this origin story turned into an identity crisis where even the filmmakers seemed more interested in the idea of Leatherface than the character himself.
So how does something like that even happen? And how do you take one of horror’s most iconic figures and completely lose the plot before the movie even begins? What legendary horror name received their final producing credit on this film? How many movies were originally planned as part of Lionsgate’s ill-fated Texas Chainsaw reboot universe? Rev up those chainsaws one last time as we find out what happened to Leatherface.
Even though it’s called Leatherface, the 2017 horror movie about the first family of Texas massacres involving chainsaws is about as far removed from the original film as possible. And somehow, it’s another origin story. While its quality as both a horror movie and franchise entry remains heavily debated, the story behind its production is genuinely fascinating.
To understand how this movie even reached release, we have to go back to January 2007. That’s when Platinum Dunes announced they were finished making Texas Chainsaw films following the release of Jonathan Liebesman’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. The movie had been profitable, but the studio decided not to move forward with a third entry. Soon after, the rights shifted to Lionsgate, which began planning an entirely new series of films.
Originally, the studio envisioned a trilogy with possible involvement from James Wan. Later, it was even claimed that Lionsgate had access to enough rights for as many as six movies. Unfortunately for the studio (and maybe fortunately for audiences) those plans would never fully materialize. And that summarizes the biggest issue with this entire era of Texas Chainsaw movies: there never seemed to be a clear creative direction.
The franchise constantly felt like it was trying to stay alive while simultaneously figuring itself out in real time. One movie ignored the previous film, timelines constantly shifted, and continuity became more of a suggestion than an actual rule. For longtime fans, the series increasingly felt disconnected. For new audiences, it became difficult to even understand where these movies fit into the timeline.
Leatherface wasn’t just attempting to tell an origin story. It was trying to reset everything without fully committing to what that reset actually meant.
The first film released under the new deal was Texas Chainsaw 3D, which moved from an October 2012 release date to January 2013 but still managed to perform moderately well financially. Following that success, Millennium Films and Lionsgate began developing a follow-up tentatively titled Texas Chainsaw 4. The original plan involved filming in Louisiana sometime in 2013 to capture a more authentic Southern atmosphere.
Millennium chairman Avi Lerner was reportedly eager to move forward and claimed the project had been brought to him by producer Lati Grobman and actress-turned-producer Christa Campbell, both of whom had worked on the previous movie. There was just one major problem. Whether it was confusion over paperwork, crossed wires, or simply moving too quickly, they apparently did not actually have authorization to produce a direct sequel.
Executive producer Mark Burg later explained that despite what Millennium believed, the rights were controlled by Carl Mazzocone and Main Line Pictures. A direct sequel was essentially impossible. But that didn’t mean the project itself was dead.
Instead of another sequel, writer and producer Seth M. Sherwood pitched a completely different idea: another prequel. Sherwood later worked as an uncredited writer on London Has Fallen and also contributed to the horror game The Devil in Me. He had grown frustrated with the franchise’s increasingly messy continuity and wanted to explore themes involving identity, transformation, and psychological deterioration. Drawing inspiration from comments made by original creators Tobe Hooper and Gunnar Hansen, Sherwood leaned into the idea that the person beneath the mask was essentially a blank slate.
Hansen himself had once suggested that there was “nothing” underneath the mask; that the face Leatherface wore helped define his personality. Sherwood’s screenplay explored how that transformation might happen.
Another major concept involved portraying the future killer not as someone born inherently monstrous, but as someone gradually shaped by trauma and violence.
On August 13, 2014, Sherwood was officially announced as the film’s writer. A few months later, on Halloween, Lionsgate revealed the directing duo behind the movie: French filmmakers Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, best known for the brutal 2007 horror film Inside.
At the time, Hollywood had already seen success stories involving French horror directors transitioning into American genre filmmaking. Alexandre Aja had previously moved from the French horror scene to direct The Hills Have Eyes remake, which ironically was a project Bustillo and Maury had once been considered for themselves.
When they read Sherwood’s script, they were immediately drawn to how different it felt from the rest of the franchise. Sherwood also wanted the movie to feel accessible for fans frustrated by the increasingly tangled continuity. He placed the story at the earliest point in the timeline and intentionally ignored the continuity established by the 2003 remake and its prequel.
At the same time, he still included subtle nods to older films. Texas Ranger Hartman was conceived as a tribute to Dennis Hopper’s Lefty from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, while names like Nubbins, Drayton, and the Sawyer family helped tie the movie into the larger mythology. Sherwood envisioned the film as the beginning of a new Lionsgate timeline that would include the 1974 original and Texas Chainsaw 3D.
The producers selected Bustillo and Maury largely because of the intensity they brought to their films. Naturally, the directors requested changes to Sherwood’s script. He was reportedly happy to collaborate. The overall story remained mostly intact, but nearly every death sequence was reworked. And if you’re familiar with French horror cinema from the late 1990s and early 2000s, you can probably guess what happened next: things became significantly more violent.
One of the biggest changes involved the ending. The original screenplay reportedly featured a massive set piece where the killer slaughtered more than thirty people in one extended sequence. Bustillo and Maury thought that might be excessive and replaced it with a smaller but still deeply disturbing moment involving stitched-together faces. You know. Perfectly normal Leatherface behavior.
The cast ended up featuring several surprisingly recognizable names. Stephen Dorff signed on to play Texas Ranger Hal Hartman, a man obsessed with hunting down the murderous Sawyer family after the death of his daughter. Dorff already had extensive genre experience thanks to films like Blade, FearDotCom, and Alone in the Dark. Opposite him was Lily Taylor as Sawyer family matriarch Verna. Taylor replaced Angela Bettis, who had to exit due to scheduling conflicts. With credits including The Addiction, The Haunting, and The Conjuring, Taylor was already well established within horror cinema.
The rest of the cast included Jessica Madsen, Sam Coleman, Vanessa Grasse, Finn Jones, and Sam Strike. Strike, who would ultimately be revealed as the future Leatherface, was drawn to the role because of how character-driven the script felt. He appreciated the idea of exploring multiple dimensions of a character who had previously existed mostly as a silent killing machine. To prepare, Strike studied earlier films, analyzed Leatherface’s physicality, and developed his own interpretation of the role. He even intentionally gained weight during filming to better sell the physical demands of carrying heavy chainsaws from the 1950s and 1960s.
Despite the Texas setting, the movie was ultimately filmed in Bulgaria rather than Texas or Louisiana. Millennium Films already operated studio facilities there, making production significantly more affordable.
Wide-open locations were selected to resemble rural Texas landscapes, while several period-accurate vehicles were transported from the United States to maintain the film’s 1960s setting.
One pleasant surprise was the heavy reliance on practical effects. Most of the kills were achieved physically on set, with only limited CGI enhancements added later. The production team even created a disturbingly realistic cow carcass for the movie.
Two different chainsaws were also used during filming. One was a rubber prop for scenes involving close interaction with actors, while the other was a functioning electric chainsaw used for visual realism.
Another major practical achievement involved recreating the original farmhouse from the 1974 classic. The crew built an almost identical version of the house and expanded its role within the story to justify the effort.
The film was originally scheduled for release in 2016, despite production having started years earlier. Then, without much explanation, Lionsgate quietly shelved the movie. Sherwood later admitted he feared the film might become one of those mysterious unreleased horror projects fans only hear about through convention stories and internet rumors.
Then something even stranger happened. In early 2017, an entirely unrelated movie titled Leatherface appeared on UK home video. Despite the marketing featuring chainsaw imagery, the film had absolutely nothing to do with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. It was actually a repackaged version of Playing with Dolls: Bloodlust. Even the movie’s director later apologized, explaining that the distributor had changed the title and advertising.
The real Leatherface finally premiered at FrightFest on August 25, 2017. Afterward, it debuted on DirecTV in September before receiving a wider digital release in October. Because of this unusual release strategy, the movie earned only around $1.4 million and failed to recover its reported budget.
Critical and audience reactions were heavily mixed.
At one point, Lionsgate still suggested it intended to continue its planned franchise universe. In reality, the studio simply took too long developing its proposed slate of films and eventually lost the rights altogether. Those rights later moved to Legendary Pictures, which produced another sequel connected directly to the original 1974 movie. That effectively ended the Lionsgate timeline.
In the end, Leatherface never fully became the strange blend of Terrence Malick’s Badlands and Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides that some of the filmmakers had envisioned. Still, it’s probably not quite as terrible as its reputation suggests.
For now, though, let’s rev down those chainsaws and put the series to rest. Because now we know what happened to Leatherface.
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