The Naked Gun Reboot Happening With Liam Neeson Starring
As the very serious action star has teased in the past, Liam Neeson is headed to Police Squad and is in talks to star in a reboot of The Naked Gun. Deadline brings word of the Taken actor being in talks for the part, revealing that Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers director Akiva Schaffer is in negotiations to step behind the camera. The trade goes on to note that Schaffer is bringing "Rescue Rangers" screenwriters Dan Gregor and Doug Mand along to work on the script, a previous draft having been written Mark Hentemann & Alec Sulkin. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane is set to produce alongside Erica Huggins through their Fuzzy Door banner.
The Naked Gun film franchise, a feature spinoff of the short-lived Police Squad! TV series, originally starred comedian Leslie Nielsen and hailed from the Airplane! team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. Attempts to revive it in the past have been made, previously in 2013 Reno: 911's Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant had written a script that had Ed Helms attached to star. As for the new movie, the trade reports that plot details are not being discussed just yet but that Liam Neeson could be playing the son of Leslie Nielsen's Lt. Frank Drebin.
Neeson previously teased that he'd been approached about The Naked Gun way back in January of last year, revealing to People: "I've been approached by Seth MacFarlane and Paramount Studios to maybe resurrect the Naked Gun films. It'll either finish my career or bring it in another direction. I honestly don't know."
Though best known to many audiences for his appearances in action thrillers like The Grey, the Taken trilogy, or The Commuter, Neeson does have comedy chops. In addition to lending his voice to comedic animated movies like The LEGO Movie and The Nut Job, he's appeared in actual comedies (often as himself) to great effect. Neeson even previously collaborated with Seth MacFarlane in A Million Ways to Die in the West and with a cameo in Ted 2. The actor's funniest appearance though is when he guest starred as himself in the Warwick Davis comedy series Life's Too Short.
Perhaps the funniest thing about the sudden news that Liam Neeson is finally in talks for The Naked Gun reboot is that Deadline attributed the success of Top Gun: Maverick to "ramping up on getting Naked Gun off the ground." Obviously the original film in both franchises was a big hit in the 1980s but it's the kind of dot-connecting that makes almost no sense.