Hollywood continues on the road to reboot with Paramount announcing its decision to launch a reboot of police comedy franchise The Naked Gun, with Ed Helms (he of the Hangover flicks and the US version of The Office) said to be taking on the lead role as Lieutenant Frank Drebin. With the news just being announced within the last 24 hours, specific details of production are still up in the air (there is, as yet, no director signed on and no release date set). However, alongside the announcement of Helms as leading man, this new crack at The Naked Gun will come from writers Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant.
There may be some concern over this whole decision to try and relaunch the Naked Gun franchise, which has been away from movie screens for 20 years (goddamn, I’m old). First, it’s debatable as to whether or not the writing team of Lennon and Garant are really up to the task. As much as people may enjoy the TV series Reno 911!, their credits as writers on film can read as somewhat spotty (The Pacifier, Balls of Fury, Taxi, and the Night at the Museum films), so giving them the go at such a property could be uneasy going. And the last time classic, actually very sophisticated comedy in the same ilk was updated for cinema adaptation was 2008’s Get Smart with Steve Carell and… that didn’t go so well.
It should be noted that there was a time (around 2008) when Paramount considered continuing the original film series on a straight-to-DVD basis without Nielsen, troubled by the high cost of bringing the star back again for a fourth film. However, plans to push this new instalment ahead ran out of steam due to further budgeting concerns, and halted completely around the time of Nielsen’s death in 2010. Seemingly, everyone just lost the stomach for it. It’s still tough to imagine someone else answering to the name Frank Drebin.
As it is, we’ll just have to stay seated and wait for further news on this project as it does or does not develop. It’s early days yet, and the last reboot Ed Helms was attached to (National Lampoon’s Vacation) actually did fall away, so this may or may not go the distance.