Passing away just over three years ago, the legendary Leslie Nielsen left us with a multitude of hilarious performances and perhaps aside from Airplane!, his most iconic character was that of Detective Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun franchise. While the film series itself was based on the ABC TV show Police Squad!, it’s about to get a modern update over at Paramount.
According to Variety, the studio has set Ed Helms (who is also attached to a Vacation reboot) to step into the shots of Nielsen’s character, with Reno 911! duo Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant writing the screenplay. There’s no other details on project, but this smells like a fairly useless cashgrab at first glance.
Helms doesn’t seem like an ideal fit for the character, with a more comedic demeanor than Nielsen, who played the role with straight, hilarious conviction. If the studio perhaps got Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker involved we’d take notice, but as it stands now, it’s hard to get behind this remake. As we await more details, check out the original’s trailer below.
Does Helms make a good fit for a Naked Gun reboot?