In his post-The Office career, it would appear that actor Ed Helms will be content to remake 80s comedy classics. It was announced nearly two years ago that Helms was attached to star in a reboot of the National Lampoon’s Vacation films- where he’d play Rusty Griswold all grown up. While that project has stalled as the script gets rewritten to expand the roles of the grandparents (a returning Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo), Variety is now reporting that Helms will also step into the lead role of Frank Drebin in a remake of the goofy police spoof The Naked Gun. The original film starred Leslie Nielsen as the bumbling detective- a role he originated in the TV show Police Squad!– and it lead to two sequels.

Paramount Pictures is now planning to relaunch the franchise and, aside from signing Helms, they’ve inked deals with Night At The Museum scribes Thomas Lennon and R. Ben Garant. The duo are also responsible for the far-less family friendly Reno 911 TV series, so it remains to be seen which tone they’re going to take for the Naked Gun remake.

As of now, no director has been signed. Though, if I had my away, I’d have them beg fellow Museum alum Ben Stiller to direct it- and make it a hard R action-comedy in the vein of his Tropic Thunder. That would make it a franchise worth revisiting.

The original trilogy didn’t cost much to make, but earned a combined $275 million. That’s the merit of a good comedy franchise. Similar to horror flicks, the costs are low and the profits can be real high. They’re low-risk enterprises- unless Mike Myers gets his hands on them, of course.

Here’s how the first Naked Gun began:

SOURCE: Variety