Paramount Pictures is moving forward with a reboot of The Naked Gun, according to Deadline’s Justin Kroll. Actor Liam Neeson is set to star in the film with Akiva Schaffer to direct from a script by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand (Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers) and with Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins producing through Fuzzy Door.
Kroll notes that Neeson “may be playing the son of officer Frank Drebin instead of stepping into the shoes made famous by Leslie Nielsen.” Previous reports have noted that Neeson might have been on par to play the Drebin character. Thursday’s report confirms differently.
Late actor Nielsen, who died in 2010 at the age of 84 from pneumonia, popularized the character from its short-lived, more seriously toned appearance on the ABC series, “Police Squad” in 1982, to a more comedic approach in a trilogy of feature films dubbed The Naked Gun between 1998 and 1994. David Zucker directed the first two installments with Peter Segal rounding out the trilogy which collectively totals more than $476 million.
Read more at Deadline.