Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Paul Walter Hauser (Cobra Kai, Richard Jewell, Black Bird) has joined the cast of Paramount’s rebooted comedy feature, The Naked Gun. He joins Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, as previously announced. He’ll take on the role of Captain Ed, inhabited in prior Naked Gun films by George Kennedy, and in the preceding series Police Squad! by Alan North.
Akiva Schaffer is directing and exec producing the comedy, slated for release in theaters on July 18, 2025. Dan Gregor and Doug Mand wrote the draft script along with Schaffer, with whom they partnered on the Emmy-winning film Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers. Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins are producing via Fuzzy Door, with Daniel M. Stillman also serving as EP.
Known for their absurd scenarios and slapstick humor, past Naked Gun films centered on the misadventures of Frank Drebin, the clueless and bumbling police detective played by Leslie Nielsen, who also starred in Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker’s Police Squad!.
Coming off of Emmy, Critics Choice and Golden Globe wins for his haunting turn as serial killer Larry Hall in Apple’s crime drama Black Bird, Hauser was also recently seen in the second season of Apple’s hit comedy The Afterparty from Lord & Miller. On June 14, he’ll be heard voicing the character of Embarrassment in the long-awaited Inside Out 2. Other upcoming projects include Tony Tost’s directorial debut Americana with Sydney Sweeney, which was recently acquired by Lionsgate, and Doug Liman’s Apple Original The Instigators, which has him starring opposite Matt Damon. Hauser also recently signed on to play Chris Farley in a biopic that will be directed by Josh Gad.
via: Deadline
