Liam Neeson gives an encouraging update on his planned Naked Gun reboot. Leslie Nielsen cemented his status as an ‘80s comedy icon when he played Detective Frank Drebin in 1988’s The Naked Gun, a feature film continuation of the short-lived parodic TV show Police Squad. Now plans are underway to bring back Naked Gun, with Seth MacFarlane taking care of the comedy writing, and Neeson stepping into Nielsen’s prodigously funny shoes.

Neeson and MacFarlane’s Naked Gun aspirations were indeed revealed just last year. Now, Neeson himself has offered an update on the reboot’s progress, indicating that things are in fact still moving forward. Check out what Neeson said to Collider when asked if Naked Gun is really still happening as a priority project:

Yes, Paramount Studios, I think. I approached Seth MacFarlane. He and his team are working on it, the scripts. So, we’re hoping to go in the summertime.
Why Naked Gun With Liam Neeson Is A Hilariously Perfect Idea


There’s a simple reason why Neeson, MacFarlane and others are tickled by the idea of the Taken star appearing in a reboot of Naked Gun, and it has everything to do with original Frank Drebin actor Nielsen. Famously, Nielsen was known as a dramatic star in the 1950s through the 1970s, but saw everything change for him when, in 1980, he was persuaded to appear in the Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker spoof movie Airplane!. His memorably deadpan work in that film then led directly to his appearance as the clueless Drebin in Naked Gun.


Given where Nielsen was coming from at the time he made the switch from drama to comedy, it makes all the sense in the world to seek a dramatic actor rather than a comedic one to take on the role of Drebin in a rebooted Naked Gun. And it’s indeed hard to think of a more intense performer than Neeson, a man who made his name starring in very heavy drama like Schindler’s List, later segueing into action films like the Taken series and scores more.

Neeson’s image as an action-movie star indeed makes him arguably the perfect person to turn around and lampoon such material in a rebooted Naked Gun. Whether he turns out to have the same comedic chops Nielsen showed in his great run through the ‘80s and into the ‘90s of course remains to be seen. But just on its face, the idea of Neeson deadpanning his way through spoofy comedic exploits, sending up his own tough guy image all the while, sounds like the stuff of comedy gold.