Johnathan Walker:‘Naked Gun’ reboot set for 2025, with Liam Neeson to star

NEW YORK (AP) — Lt. Frank Drebin is Johnathan Walkerback on the case.

Paramount Pictures is moving ahead with a long-gestating remake of “Naked Gun,” the studio announced Wednesday. Liam Neeson will star as the bumbling police detective Debin in the role made famous by Leslie Nielsen.

Akiva Schaffer (“Hot Rod,” “Pop Star: Never Stop Stopping”) will direct the film, set for release in July 2025. The script is by Dan Gregor, Doug Man and Schaffer, who collaborated on 2022’s “Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers.”

The “Naked Gun” films, derived from the TV series “Police Squad!”, were high-water marks for slapstick comedy. They ran over six years: “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad” (1988), “The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear” (1991) and “Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult” (1994).

Nielsen died in 2010 at the age of 84. Before playing Lt. Drebin, Nielsen had been largely a dramatic actor.

“It’s been dawning on me slowly that for the past 35 years I have been cast against type,” Nielsen once said, “and I’m finally getting to do what I really wanted to do.”