There are, as of now, eight Leprechaun movies. This is either kind of shocking or not shocking at all if you follow horror movies at all. For instance, did you know there were 11 Children of the Corn? (I’ll admit I’ve somehow seen three of them.)
Anyway, Hulu is in the midst of its “Huluween” celebration and the Leprechaun movies are in their spotlight. A couple of weeks ago, to promote this event, I got an email asking if I wanted to talk to Mark Jones, the director of the first Leprechaun movie. I replied, “I do.” When Jones first popped up on my Zoom screen, yeah, I did kind of expect the director of Leprechaun to be smoking an oversized cigar.
Leprechaun is a pretty zany movie. It’s, yes, about a Leprechaun (Warwick Davis) who is mad his gold got stolen. When some foolish people (led by Jennifer Aniston one year before she was on Friends) find his gold, the Leprechaun goes on a murderous rampage in an attempt to get it back. Once the group realizes the Leprechaun just wants his gold back, okay. he can have it. But there’s one problem, Ozzie (Mark Holton, probably best known for playing Francis in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure) accidentally ate one of the pieces so they can’t fully pay the Leprechaun back.
The first Leprechaun was released in theaters in early January of 1993, still up against the 1992 holiday season films like Home Alone 2 and Aladdin, and still managed to gross a little under $10 million. Combine that with its home video rental and … well you get seven more Leprechaun movies and me, here in 2023, writing a feature about it.
Ahead, Jones takes us through how he went from Saturday morning cartoons (I made sure to mention how much I loved his work on Turbo Teen), to shows like The Fall Guy and The A-Team, to directing a movie like Leprechaun. And he tells us how he lucked out by casting Aniston, an unknown actor at the time that the studio didn’t want to cast but Jones knew she had “it.” (Jones was right.)
You made Turbo Teen.
How did you know that? Wow.
Well, it’s on the internet. But I loved Turbo Teen. It was a teenager who could turn into a sports car.
I did that with Joe Ruby at Ruby-Spears, but It’s funny because I go on IMDB and it says, “Turbo Teen, writer of one episode.” They need to put I wrote the pilot. I co-created that with Joe Ruby. I love that show and it’s kind of interesting that it comes up every now and then. I started in animation very young, and then I got into primetime TV, so I had a lot of fun.
How does all that lead to Leprechaun? I feel there’s a disconnect there that I’m trying to fill.
No, there’s a straight connect. I wrote Scooby-Doo and the Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels. I was at Hanna-Barbera before I went to Ruby-Spears. I was writing some Scooby-Doo and I said, you know what I want to do? I want to direct a horror movie. That’s why I got out of television — to actually direct. Because I was a writer, a producer of TV, but not a director. So I wrote a script and I wanted Leprechaun to be like a live-action Scooby-Doo. And if you’ve noticed, there are bright colors. The sets I designed, the kitchens were orange and green and yellow, but even the clothes the kids wore were very bright. And I did that on purpose. I wanted to do a live-action Scooby-Doo, and so that’s why I had the leprechaun on a tricycle and all that.
Yeah, I noticed Mark Holton has kind of a Fred vibe that he’s wearing.
Yeah, exactly. And I still talk to Mark. He’s great. I talk to him all the time. So I went out to specifically create that kind of different sort of horror movie.
I’ve always wondered this with horror movies when you’re casting. Is that the dream to get someone who’s going to be super famous in the future? Because now your film’s always cemented with a very famous actor.
That would probably be Jennifer.
Yes.
I’ve said this a lot, and she’s a sweetheart. And then she went off and did her thing. When she came in the room and she was nobody, I had never heard of her, she had not done really anything.
I remember she did a Ferris Bueller television show?
Yeah, I think they did like six episodes…
She was the Jennifer Grey role. Charlie Slaughter played Ferris Bueller.
Right. And when she came in there was a charisma about her. She walked in the room and I remember, because I was there with my casting director and Michael Prescott, my producing partner, and we both looked at each other and said, “There’s something about this girl.” She was my pick. I had to fight the studio to get her.
Really?
It wasn’t their first pick. And we got her for scale. I don’t think she’ll be upset about me saying that. But it was her first picture that she’s co-starring in. And then after Leprechaun was released, she got Friends. I tell her I’m completely responsible for her success. I tell her that. And then she says to me, “Who is this?”
It’s interesting, in the movie she played the character Tory, a Beverly Hills brat who didn’t want to be on the farm. And her character in Friends also was a rich girl who left her wedding in the pilot and was kind of considered the snobby rich girl whose dad was taking care of her. I’m sure it had nothing to do with this movie, but some people have pointed out that sort of the character was similar to what she played in Leprechaun.
I do always wonder that though. Kevin Bacon is in Friday the 13th. Crispin Glover and Corey Feldman are in Friday the 13th 4. They kind of give these movies an added reason to stick around. I do wonder if that’s on your mind. That maybe you’ll get lucky and cast a future star.
Never thought. I mean, to go in with a basically low-budget movie that was made direct to video that ended up going big theatrical, never did I think that this girl is going to be a superstar and is going to make the movie work. I thought she was the best for the movie. I was happy to get her. No, I was very pleased because I’m sure it helped on DVD and video sales. And people still watch it. But yeah, you can’t go in thinking that. I was just happy that I had a movie to make.
Were you shocked by how reasonably well it did at the box office? All things considered, you were up against Aladdin and A Few Good Men.
Oh, it’s funny you say that. And I’ll say this quickly. We would go to the theaters. I live in the San Fernando Valley. We came out in January and you had to be 17. Ours was R so the kids couldn’t go in. So they would buy tickets to The Muppet Christmas Carol and then go into Leprechaun. And I said, “We’re losing money! And Jim Henson is making all this money from my movie!” So I was pleasantly surprised that the theaters were selling out. And I’m going, I think they got it. The critics killed me. Critics hated the movie in the beginning, but they didn’t understand what we were doing. They were comparing it with Exorcist and this and that.
Yes, very similar movies.
So in any event, I was pleasantly surprised. And then it went to VHS because it had such a big theatrical run. And so it made a lot of money. And then they did number two and three and four and so on.
Did you not want to direct the second movie?
No, I didn’t really. I went off and did a movie called Rumpelstiltskin and that was a bigger budget. And then of course they kept doing them. And at that point, the budgets actually on some of the later ones like three, four, and five weren’t really that big because a lot of them went to video, but they did so well. But I was sort of off doing other stuff. But financially I have an interest every time they make one.
Considering your budget, you wound up with a pretty good cast. Obviously Jennifer Aniston. But also Warwick Davis and we mentioned Mark Holton, who is obviously known as Francis from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.
I did have a good cast, and cast is critical. I’m still in touch with Mark Holton. And Robert Gorman, the kid, was good.
Yeah, he’s in Forever Young.
I did find Mark because I used him on a Superboy episode when I was in Orlando. I did the first season and second season of Superboy. Syndicated show. Cast was really important and everybody was great and Jennifer and Ken Olin and obviously Warwick. So I got very lucky with cast and the chemistry worked. So I think that helped the movie a lot.
‘Leprechaun’ is currently streaming on Hulu. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.
