After being teased last year, it looks like a reboot of comedy franchise The Naked Gun is green lit at Paramount Pictures and Liam Neeson is in talks to take on the lead role. As reported by DeadlineThe new film will be directed by Akiva Schaffer and produced by Family man creator Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins through their production company Fuzzy Door. Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers The writing team of Dan Gregor and Doug Mand will reunite with that film’s director, Schaffer, for the project as they rewrite the existing draft of the script written by Mark Hentemann and Alec Sulkin.
The Naked Gun originally, Leslie Nielsen played the lead role of Frank Drebin, a character from the ABC series police squad. Although the series only survived for six episodes before being canceled due to appalling ratings, the feature film that followed became an instant hit and was one of Nielsen’s most successful films alongside such films as Aeroplane! With lots of visual jokes, ambiguities and some ridiculous slapstick, The Naked Gun brought out the side of Nielsen that he is most remembered for, despite a long career as a straight actor before turning to comedy.
For this reason, Liam Neeson may seem like an odd choice to take over the franchise from Nielsen, who passed away in 2010, but he’s a perfect successor. While no specific details have been released about the plot of the new film, it is rumored that Neeson will not take over the role of Nielsen, but will play Frank Drebin’s son, who will no doubt have inherited his father’s fortune. total chaos but still catch the bad guys.
Liam Neeson has been waiting to be part of a Naked Gun reboot
Liam Neeson has discussed the potential naked gun reboot for quite some time, not as long as the decade that a possible remake of the movie has been on the cards, but certainly for the last few years. While he’s currently best known for his tough action roles, Neeson has been known to take a comedic turn in the past, and it looks like he was ready to The Naked Gun last year. He then said:
“I know Seth and his team are working on a concept, I’m very excited, and I think and hope Seth might be directing it himself. No date has been set, I think, I believe it’s Paramount Pictures that Seth approached, and Seth approached me. This was about a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago. So it’ll either ruin my career, whatever’s left of it, or I’ll find another little adventure, you know?”
Though things have changed a bit with MacFarlane no longer directing the project himself, the film is now seemingly on solid ground. This seems to be a revival/sequel to the original naked gun movies, and with someone like MacFarlane — who isn’t known for his subtle humor — as part of the production, there’s probably no better team to bring The Naked Gun back in style.