Last October brought the surprising news that Liam Neeson, action-star and Academy Award nominee, was in line to star in a reboot of The Naked Gun. Previous reports had revealed that the Taken-star had been approached about the possibility in the past, but now the reboot was moving ahead with Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers director Akiva Schaffer in talks to helm the movie and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane is set to produce. Now, speaking in a new interview, Neeson has offered an update on the movie revealing that filming is targeting a start date that is very soon.
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“Yes, we’re waiting on a script, “Neeson told Collider about the new version of The Naked Gun. “Yeah, we’re hoping it’ll happen this year, maybe in the summertime.” It was previously reported that Neeson could be playing the son of Leslie Nielsen’s Lt. Frank Drebin from the original movies. Rescue Rangers screenwriters Dan Gregor and Doug Mand were previously attached to write a new draft of the film, working from a script written by Mark Hentemann & Alec Sulkin.
Though many audience members associate Neeson with his stable of dramatic roles like Kinsey & Schindler’s List and his recent crop of action thrillers like The Grey, the Taken trilogy, or The Commuter, he does have a funny side. Not only has he previously collaborated with Seth MacFarlane with A Million Ways to Die in the West and cameos in The Orville and Ted 2, but has lent his to comedic animated movies like The LEGO Movie and The Nut Job.
Neeson has also made several surprise appearances on TV shows in comedic roles, playing Chief Constable Byers in Derry Girls and in an episode of Inside Amy Schumer. He even appeared as a parody of himself in both Donald Glover’s Atlanta and HBO’s Entourage. The actor’s funniest appearance though is when he guest starred as himself in the Warwick Davis comedy series Life’s Too Short.
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.
