The Vacation “reboot” (which actually sounds more like a sequel, but that’s another story), has stalled over “creative differences,” according to THR. Specifically, over whether it should aim for an R rating like the original, or PG-13, in order to reach a larger audience and dolla dolla bill y’all.
New Line has put the brakes on the high-profile reboot of the classic Chevy Chase comedy, which is set to star Ed Helms as a grown-up version of Rusty Griswold on his own family road trip from hell. The movie was scheduled to shoot in Atlanta in July and was in active preproduction. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein wrote the script and are to make their directorial debut on the reboot-slash-remake. Christina Applegate is also on board to star as Helms’ wife and original franchise stars Chase and Beverly D’Angelo were to make cameos. |THR|
As of now, no one knows who was in which camp in the disagreement. Daley and Goldstein last wrote Horrible Bosses (R) and Burt Wonderstone (PG-13). The conventional wisdom (and movie studios are nothing if not conventional) is that PG-13 comedies are a safer bet at the box office, since they’re drawing from a larger pool of possible audience members. Of course, that didn’t hold true for the last two movies these guys wrote - Horrible Bosses, $117 million worldwide; Burt Wonderstone, $22 million worldwide. And let’s be honest, a big part of the reason most of these beloved eighties comedies are remembered so fondly is because we saw them when we were kids, when “shitter’s full” was still kind of naughty, and thus something you’d watch over and over. But you show me a studio exec that cares more about a film’s legacy than its opening weekend and I’ll show you an eight-dicked unicorn. Obviously I’m a little bit biased, being a cuss-mouthed cocksucker, but the idea that a PG-13 comedy has a better chance of making money than an R-rated one seems dubious at best. What are the most successful recent comedies you can think of? The Hangover? Bridesmaids? R. R. The most successful comedy reboot? 21 Jump Street? Also R. Meanwhile, how’d that PG-13 remake of Arthur starring Russell Brand work out?
All I know is, you know your project is in trouble when you’re having creative differences before Chevy Chase has even read the script.
On an overseas flight to London, journalist Buck Williams and pilor Rayford Steele are caught in the middle of the most incredible event in history, as without warning dozens of passengers have simply vanished! It soons become apparent that this was not an isolated incident and there are millions of people missing. As chaos and anarchy engulf the world, both men set out on different paths in a desperate search for answers. [Original Left Behind Synopsis]
