An official trailer for “The Naked Gun” reboot is here, and brings with it a special set of skills: absurdist comedy, glossy action aesthetics, Liam Neeson in polkadot briefs and school girl uniform and, naturally, an O.J. Simpson joke.
Neeson stars as Frank Drebin Jr., the son of legendary goofball cop and franchise father Leslie Nielsen. In a brief clip shared online and at CinemaCon, the annual convention of movie theater owners, Neeson brings Nielsen’s brand of crimefighting to a new generation of audiences.
In the midst of a tense heist where police officers are attempting to seize bank robbers, we see a little girl with an oversized lollipop casually walk through the standoff.
“What do you want, little one?” asks a bad guy toting a machine gun. “Your ass,” says the child, before ripping off a face mask to reveal Neeson. The lollipop stick becomes a deadly shiv as Neeson rips them apart.
Akiva Schaffer, one of the masterminds behind digital and film comedy troupe The Lonely Island, takes the director’s chair. “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins produced.
Paramount’s original “Naked Gun” trilogy starred Nielsen as Franklin “Frank” Drebin, a good-hearted yet gullible detective at the center of a police procedural parody. The 1988 movie “The Naked Gun: From the Files of a Police Squad” was a critical and commercial smash, earning positive reviews and $140 million at the box office to match.
Given its popularity, the studio shepherded two sequels, 1991’s “The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear” and 1994’s “Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult,” to financial success. Paramount has been attempting to return to the series since 2013. It was first being rebooted with Ed Helms as Frank Drebin, but that version eventually fell apart.
In early 2021, McFarlane announced he had been hired to retool the film. Exact plot details, as well as a production timeline. The film will heat theaters nationwide on July 18. Watch the first teaser trailer:
