Paramount hires ‘Hangover’ star Ed Helms for ‘Naked Gun’ reboot

He was previously attached to the Vacation reboot, but that fell through, so Paramount has now looked to Ed Helms to star in a reboot of the Naked Gun franchise.

Paramount has hired Night at the Museum and Reno 911 writers Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant to write the screenplay, according to Variety in a Dec. 13 article.

Helms, famous for roles in The Hangover films, We’re the Millers and Stretch, will play Detective Frank Drebin. Drebin was played by Leslie Nielsen in three films as a spinoff from the ABC series Police Squad!

Helms left the Vacation project over “creative differences,” which were reported to be a battle between the movie’s development team: Some want to tone the project down to aim for a PG-13 rating, and others want to keep it R-rated, like the original movie.

The Naked Gun films were released between 1988 and 1994, grossing over $275 million.

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Stephen Nevets - Stephen is a contributor and writer on The Dispatch. Stephen is the founder and editor for the Steven Spielberg Fan Club website and contributes to pop culture stories on The Dispatch, especially upcoming movie news. Beginning in 2016, Stephen took the role of Managing Editor for the Tampa Dispatch.