The Lionsgate/WWE reboot of the Leprechaun franchise has been moving along quite quickly since it was announced in March. In that time it was reported that Hornswaggle (born Dylan Postl), a little person who has been fighting in the WWE since 2004, would be playing the title character. What's been missing from the project, however, is a writer and a director, and while they are still on the hunt to find someone to helm the film, they have now successfully found someone to pen it.
Up-and-coming scribe Harris Wilkinson has been hired by Lionsgate and WWE Films to write the upcoming Lreprechaun reboot, according to Deadline. The original, which was written and directed by Mark Jones, starred Warwick Davis as the titular character who goes on a killing rampage while searching for his stolen pot of gold. Wilkinson doesn't have any produced credits - or at least any that appear on IMDb - but he sold a spec script titled Ink to Paramount last year and worked with Len Wiseman on developing a project for Fox. Following its release in 1993, Leprechaun spawned multiple sequels, including Leprechaun 2, Leprechaun 3, Leprechaun 4: In Space, Leprechaun in the Hood, Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood. The last in the franchise came out in 2003.
I find it a bit hard to be excited for this project, not just because it sounds like another completely pointless remake, but because WWE doesn't exactly have the greatest history when it comes to the movie industry (not exactly hard to forget classics like See No Evil, The Marine, The Condemned or 12 Rounds). But maybe Wilkinson will turn out to be a brilliant screenwriter and they will get a talented director to helm the thing. Stranger things have happened, no?
