Leslie Nielsen famously flipped his career 180 degrees when he started working with the Zuckers — David and Jerry — on the 1980 comedy Airplane! Nielsen was a seasoned dramatic actor who took his serious demeanor and used it to deliver the silliest of lines in a dry manner, resulting in some of the greatest comedy performances. Nielsen was able to become a leading man late in his career in The Naked Gun series, which would then spin him off into more leading roles in similar comedies, which would not necessarily be made by the Zuckers.
Enter Liam Neeson. The thespian has already reinvented himself when the former dramatic actor starred in 2008’s Taken, which showed that he could use his tall stature in the action genre. Neeson’s acting route would eventually land him in some comedy roles, including a self-parody guest spot on Life’s Too Short and working with Seth MacFarlane on A Million Ways to Die in the West and a cameo in Ted 2. Neeson is now starring in a reboot of The Naked Gun and Collider reports that the actor is finding the task a little daunting.
Neeson spoke with the site when promoting his new Irish-centric film In the Land of Saints and Sinners when he said, “Well, obviously, the script has got to be funny and have a kind of a theme, a kind of a story, albeit quite loose, going through the script rather than just a series of gags, which can get boring very, very quickly. Yes, 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. 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. There has to be lots of visual gags going on, too.”
Sadly, two members of the original team behind The Naked Gun, David Zucker and Pat Proft aren’t happy about the reboot, with them telling THR that they actually came up with a draft for Naked Gun 4, which was rejected, and that if another movie in the series was going to be made, they should be the ones doing it (even if they hold no ill feelings towards Schaffer, who they praised).
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