The NY Daily News is reporting that Leslie Nielsen was dusting of his ‘Shirley’ badge, set to reprise his trademark role as Lt. Frank Drebin in another “Naked Gun”, just prior to his death this week.
Not true.
I dunno, does it help easing the pain knowing that?
If it does help ease the pain, I can tell you that it wasn’t going to happen; Paramount had abandoned plans for a third sequel to the 1988 hit quite a while ago. Nielsen wasn’t onboard.
A couple of years back, Paramount announced that they’d formed a new direct-to-DVD sequel division titled Paramount Famous, and in addition to ho-hum titles like “Road Trip : Beer Pong” and “Without a Paddle 2 : Nature’s Calling”, hinted that new “Naked Gun”, “Grease” and “Mean Girls” sequels were on the way. Ambitious. Frightening. Intriguing.
Now “Mean Girls 2″ is in the can, the new “Grease” is said to still be in the cards, but “The Naked Gun 4″? Same place it was this time last year : Immobile. You see, the film hasn’t been on the studio’s to-do list in quite a while.
In 2009, it was reported that a new “Naked Gun” sequel had qualified for a production tax rebate by the state of California. That’s the closest to an official update we got.
I’m told that “The Naked Gun : What For? The Rhythm of Evil” was on the cards at one stage but for numerous reasons (I’m assuming Nielsen nixed the opportunity to reprise his role or the studio decided the bank was better used for their big-screen ventures) the studio decided not to push forward with the film.
The why’s and why not’s don’t much matter, what matters is, God didn’t deny us a new Frank Drebin movie. The studio did – quite a while ago.
I said I wasn’t here to rub salt in the wound, but it’s unavoidable – there was a great script here, and it would’ve been terrific to have seen it come to life; not to mention, particularly cool to see Nielsen play his trademark role one last time (as it were). Alan ‘Sledge Hammer’ Spencer’s script was sensational – maybe too good (dare I say) for a direct-to-DVD project? It might also have been too ambitious, and possibly, with Nielsen’s Drebin so much a part of the story, too expensive?
“Rhythm of Evil” would’ve been, obviously, set many years after the previous films. Drebin would’ve been retired – and with his departure from the force, the city would’ve gone to shit. Police corruption was rampant, there was crime on every corner, and the outlook was bleak. The commissioner, believing there was no other option, decides to recommission the ol’ Police Squad. Drebin assumes he’s going to be heading up the force, but he’s actually only been asked to oversee Police Squad 2.0. He chooses rookie Vince Conklin to head up the reestablished division. The script is full of terrific gags – there’s digs at “Live Free or Die Hard” (About half-way through someone saying ‘Fuck’, we move onto the next scene); “24″ (a split-screen sequence with, well, absolutely nothing of interest going on in the panels); “Naked Gun” co-star O.J Simpson (who could you not!?); and quite a few other flicks and figures. But mainly, unlike so many of today’s spoof flicks, the script actually encompassed an OK plot, so we wouldn’t have been simply twiddling out thumbs waiting for the next ribtickler to come along – we’d have been engrossed by the story, too.
I do wonder why the studio decided not to make the movie? Anyone know? was it financial? was Nielsen reluctant to reprise his role? Or was it that the VP of the studio had – don’t laugh, it could be the case – had never heard of the film? Either way, I’ve confirmed that “Naked Gun 4″ was dead in the water a while ago.
