“The Naked Gun” Trailer: Liam Neeson & Pamela Anderson Team-Up to Reboot a Comedy Classic
The late, great Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin was one of the great cinematic fools of late 80s cinema. The Naked Gun: From the Files of the Police Squad! premiered on December 2, 1988, and Nielsen’s deadpan delivery on absolutely lunatic lines, along with the film’s visual wit and fearlessly silly skits, made it an instant classic, spawning two successful sequels and cementing Nielsen’s status as a comedy god. The original franchise was written by Jerry Zucker, David Zucker, and Jim Abrahams, and was based on their television series Police Squad! Although the series was short-lived (6 episodes), Nielsen proved pitch-perfect as the hapless yet oddly effective detective.
Now, 31 years after Neilsen’s final turn as Drebin in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, Liam Neeson is here as Frank Drebin Jr. in The Naked Gun, a reboot of sorts, but of course with an asterisk—Neeson’s Drebin Jr. is Frank Drebin’s son, and he’s taking over his father’s role in the Police Squad. It’ll be a fresh start for audiences too young to have enjoyed Nielsen’s run (along with the original franchise’s excellent ensemble), with a fresh cast and storyline. The reboot comes from director Akiva Schaffer, a longtime Saturday Night Live writer and director of the deliriously funny Andy Samberg-led Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping. Schaffer directs from a script he co-wrote with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, the trio behind Disney+’s Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers. Seth McFarlane is on board as a producer.
Pamela Anderson joins Neeson as Beth, a mysterious woman with a job for Drebin, a role potentially similar to Priscilla Presley’s Jane Spencer from the original films. The official trailer confirms that the new Naked Gun isn’t afraid to get as deeply, delightfully silly as the original. Just one example is when Drebin Jr. tells Beth to “take a seat,” and she does just that, dragging a seat out of his office and down a hall.
Casting Neeson as Drebin makes plenty of sense—the actor has made a late-ish career turn depicting ruthlessly efficient types, from Bryan Mills in the Taken franchise to Jimmy “The Gravedigger” Conlan in Run All Night. He’s also done solid work in more comedic turns, like playing John “Hannibal” Smith in the reboot of The A-Team. He’ll be deploying that particular set of comedy skills to play the catastrophe-prone detective Drebin.
Neeson and Anderson are joined by Paul Walter Hauser, Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Runnels, and CCH Pounder.
Check out the trailer below. The Naked Gun is booked in theaters on August 1.
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Featured image: Pamela Anderson plays Beth and Liam Neeson plays Frank in The Naked Gun from Paramount Pictures.
