Ed Helms Starring In 'The Naked Gun' Reboot & Ridley Scott Scheduling 'The Orient Express' Remake

The Naked Gun Ed Helms

Ah, Hollywood, where the best present one can get under the tree are the remake/reboot rights to a studio property. Really, they shouldn’t have….

First up, Ed Helms will attempt playing Detective Frank Drebin in a reboot of “The Naked Gun.” We don’t envy “Night At The Museum” screenwriting pals Thomas Lennon and R. Ben Garant who will have to try and match the gonzo perfection of the 1988 movie, which is one of Leslie Nielsen’s finest hours. The perfect cocktail of hilarious/clever/deeply stupid one liners, B and C-level casting (Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalban, George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson) is the sort of lightning in a bottle you can’t re-create by committee. But they’ll try anyway.. 

Meanwhile, Ridley Scott is among the producers who have decided that Sidney Lumet‘s star-studded (Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave and Ingrid Bergman) 1974 mystery “Murder On The Orient Express” wasn’t good enough. A remake is in order over at Fox, as they put the search out for writers and a director. The only reason this project is being linked to the Lumet picture is likely for rights reason, because as we all know, Agatha Christie‘s book is the source material, and it has been brought to life on the big and small screen a few times over already. So a new, contemporary version isn’t all that outrageous an idea. [Variety/Variety]