National Lampoon’s Vacation (the one where they go to Wally World) has already had three sequels, which in the mind of movie execs, makes it ripe for another.

New Line is developing a sequel of sorts to the 1983 comedy classic, with David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers, Fred Claus) attached to produce and possibly direct.  New Line is meeting with writers to write the script but the take is already developed: the story focuses on Rusty Griswold, the son of Clark Griswold, the protagonist of the initial movies portrayed by Chevy Chase. The younger Griswold is now a father himself and takes his family on a road trip vacation. The characters would acknowledge that first trip, making the movie more of a sequel than a reboot.

The original “Vacation” is a Warner Bros. property but as soon as New Line became part of the studio, exec Sam Brown began sifting through the parent company’s titles to see what was available in terms of rights. He eventually found “Vacation,” a movie he has watched more than any other in his life, and brought it to New Line president Toby Emmerich and production president Richard Brener, who jumped at the possibilities.

They’d probably jump for a frozen herring too. This is the problem with the movie business in a nutshell: the execs are too stupid or lazy or cowardly to read new scripts (or to ask the opinion of people they pay to read scripts for them), and instead spend their time trying find out which movies they already made that they can make again.  What is this, karaoke?  Grow some balls, you pussies.

National Lampoon is not involved at this stage, as Warners controls the characters and the title.

New Line is taking meetings with writers this week, hoping to make a movie that skews more towards “Planes Trains and Automobiles” or “Little Miss Sunshine” than “RV” or “Are We There Yet?” [via THR]

i.e., they’re hoping for a script that leans more towards “not sh’tty.”  Good plan.