Having failed to get its planned reboot from director Felipe Vargas (Hive) off the ground in recent years, Lionsgate is taking another shot at relaunching the cult horror-comedy franchise Leprechaun.
The as-yet-untitled reboot is being produced by Saw franchise producer Oren Koules and his son Miles Koules through their Koulest Productions banner, with Saw regulars and horror veterans Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan set to write the script.
“After producing all the Saw films, and twenty-three wonderful years at Lionsgate, I’m thrilled to be working again with the Lionsgate team, Patrick and Marcus, and my son, Miles, on a terrifying new way into the rich world of Leprechaun,” said Oren Koules.
Originally launching in 1993, Leprechaun starred Warwick Davis as a vengeful leprechaun hunting for his stolen pot of gold. Notable for featuring a pre-Friends Jennifer Aniston in one of her earliest roles, the film spawned a franchise with Davis returning for sequels in 1994, 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2003. The series was rebooted in 2014 with WWE Studios’ Leprechaun: Origins starring Dylan Postl (a.k.a. Hornswoggle), while Linden Porco portrayed the character in 2018’s Leprechaun Returns, a direct sequel to the original.
