The often dour-faced Peter Dinklage can be rip-roaringly funny, at times. The star of “Game of Thrones” will be proving this again when he appears in an as yet-untitled comedy produced by Paramount and written by Andrew Dodge, who previously collaborated with Jason Bateman. Little is known for now concerning this irreverent comedy in the same vein as “Bad Santa” except that it will probably be “R” rated and that it tells the story of a man who goes around convincing people that he is a leprechaun.

In other news Dinklage recently completed production on next year’s “X-Men” sequel, “Days of Future Past.” His role in the next “X-Men film” was recently described in media reports as the “main villain” and then was later revealed to be Bolivar Trask. Marvel fans know Trask as a scientist who creates an army of menacing robots called The Sentinels designed to guard humanity against X-Men mutants.

On X-Men‘s Trask Industries viral marketing site, the company is described as being founded in 1967 and specializing in “genetics-based defense technology with our Mutant Detection Device and Sentinel program.” Trask sees the mutants as a threat and his goal is to try and protect the human race from extinction.

Dinklage’s character will be challenged by a tough presidential adversary, in the person of Richard Nixon.

X-Men: Days of Future Past includes the cast from the first trilogy and mixes them with cast from the sixties-set “X-Men: First Class,” with a storyline that time-travels from the present to the seventies. Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin and Ellen Page from the original films are on board with “First Class” stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence, along with a host of newcomers.

DRILLDOWN: Dinklage’s “Game of Thrones” MTV interview

NETFLIX SUGGESTION: Watch Peter Dinklage in 2003’s “The Station Agent” opposite Bobby Cannavale.