The name’s Drebin. Detective Frank Drebin of Police Squad. The beloved Leslie Nielsen comedy The Naked Gun had recently been given the greenlight for a reboot at Paramount with Liam Neeson stepping in the lead role. Once planned to be a Seth MacFarlane movie, he stays on a producer, and Akiva Schaffer steps in as writer and director of the comedy. Neeson has now said that the production hopes to move forward with shooting to take place this summer, according to Collider.
While Neeson is promoting his more serious film noir, that’s a throwback to a classic, golden era of noir movies, Marlowe, the Taken actor mentioned that the goal is to start The Naked Gun sometime this year. “Yes, we’re waiting on a script. Yeah, we’re hoping it’ll happen this year, maybe in the summertime. I approached Seth MacFarlane, he and his team are working on it, the scripts. So, we’re hoping to go in the summertime, you know?”
Although Schaffer is now the writer/director, MacFarlane has had a working relationship with Neeson, having cast him as the heavy in his western comedy satire, A Million Ways to Die in the West, as well as a guest spot on Family Guy, and a cameo in Ted 2. Neeson had revamped his career much like Leslie Nielsen did with a majority of their roles starting dramatic and being known for playing darker, complex characters. Nielsen would partner up with the Zucker brothers on Airplane! and his dead-pan delivery sealed his fate as a late-career comedic actor. Once Nielsen became Drebin, he was solidified in the role.
Neeson had a similar career shake-up as the actor would gain acclaim in roles for movies like Schindler’s List, Michael Collins, and Rob Roy, but when he shifted into a role that required a particular set of skills, Neeson would become a late-in-the-game action star with the Taken franchise and movies of the like. Recently, Neeson has become sort of a self-parody with how serious his demeanor is juxtaposed to the over-the-top action, and with a memorable appearance in a role like in HBO’s Life’s Too Short, some see Neeson’s penchant for delivering dry humor. This would seemingly make him ideal for a role like The Naked Gun‘s Drebin.