 According to Dave Tripet, the executive in charge of production for  the first three movies, this film originally started out as a spoof  of _Apollo 13 (1995)_ (qv). A senior Trimark executive saw the promo  art for Apollo 13 and immediately had artwork made up replacing  Tom Hanks (qv)s face on the poster with the Leprechauns face,  and this is what started the script work for the movie.