Deadline reports that Paul Walter Hauser has joined the cast of the upcoming Naked Gun reboot. While these casting announcements don’t always reveal who the actor will be playing, this time, it does! Hauser will play Captain Ed, the role played by George Kennedy in the previous Naked Gun movies.
Liam Neeson has long been attached to star in the Naked Gun reboot, and it was announced last month that Pamela Anderson would be starring alongside him. It’s not known precisely who Anderson will play, but it’s expected that she’ll be the romantic lead, similar to Priscilla Presley’s role in the original movies. Production will kick off later this year with Akiva Schaffer directing from a script by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand.
Paul Walter Hauser is also attached to play Chris Farley in a biopic about the iconic comedian directed by Josh Gad.
David Zucker, who directed the first two movies in the franchise and co-wrote the script, isn’t involved in the new reboot and remains skeptical. “We were not excited about having the franchise given to other people,” Zucker said. “At the time, I couldn’t believe it because we thought we had a great script, and they loved the script from what we heard. I don’t have any control over it. I’m not involved, and they haven’t asked me for my help… It’s completely their concept, and they’re just going to go ahead and do it.“
Although Liam Neeson has experience in the realm of comedy, he’s never led one himself. He explained why he wanted to take on The Naked Gun earlier this year. “It’s funny because right before Christmas, my sons and I were looking through the Academy screeners and trying to find something silly, some silly, stupid movie that we could giggle at,” Neeson explained. “There was none, of course, as they were all very heavy and international. I mean, brilliant movies but all very heavy. When Seth MacFarlane approached me about it — this was about two years ago, now — I thought, yeah, I guess I could do that as long as I play it dead seriously and not try and imitate Mr. Leslie Nielsen. He was wonderful. Akiva Schaffer is directing it and he’s from the [Saturday Night Live] world. I’m looking forward to it. It’s a good script, and there’s a few laugh out loud moments in it.“
Neeson has also confessed that he’s a little nervous about the project. “I’m honored to be offered the part of Frank Drebin, and a little bit nervous about it because I’ve done a couple of skits before that were just very short TV things, but this would be, I don’t know, 95, 100 minutes of a film,” Neeson said. “They’re still casting it so hopefully my other cast members will be funny and sexy so that I could just be dead absolutely straight.“
Do you think Paul Walter Hauser will be a good fit for the world of Naked Gun?