Ed Helms to Star in Reboot of ‘The Naked Gun’

Yeah, we can see him as the new Frank Drebin

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Ed Helms on Sept. 9, 2013, in Los Angeles
Charley Gallay / Getty Images for Yahoo!

Leslie Nielsen. Ed Helms. Ed Helms. Leslie Nielsen. About the same, right? Even if you don’t agree, you’ll get to see Helms take over Nielsen’s bumbling Frank Drebin character if Paramount’s remake of The Naked Gun franchise keeps progressing according to Variety.

Originally based on the 1982 ABC six-episode Police Squad! show—the TV version was cancelled after just six spoof-filled airings—the first Naked Gun movie hit theaters in 1988 and continued on with the goofily titled sequels The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult until ending its run in 1994.

Nielsen played a deadpanning Drebin, a role Helms will walk into a decade later after extensive comedy experience, both on the small screen in The Office and recently on a string of movies, including We’re the Millers, Stretch (2014), The Hangover trilogy and plenty more. We’ve seen display Helms  Airplane-esque behavior with his roles, similar to how Nielsen played his part, so this move probably doesn’t come as a great shock.

We’ve no clue as to what the fourth installment will be named. And exactly which fraction the title will contain.

[Variety]