The Naked Gun conundrum: Five successful franchise reboots

The news that Hangover star Ed Helms is set to take the lead in Paramount's upcoming reboot of The Naked Gun has caused something of a fracas among fans.

[Ed Helms firing up the Naked Gun reboot for Paramount]

Many who are fond of the original franchise and loyal to its star, Leslie Nielsen, aren't convinced that Helms has got what it takes to replace the legendary comedy actor.

But are they being too quick to judge?

While there's certainly room for error and the possibility of failure that comes along with it, many much-loved franchises have survived a reboot or recasting - sometimes it even works out for the better.


Batman Begins: Bruce Wayne

Though Tim Burton's 1989 Batman and the subsequent sequel Batman Returns (1992) are, without doubt, great superhero movies, the Batman franchise found itself floundering in 1995. Batman Forever and Batman & Robin (1997) were not only bad films, they missed the point of the iconic hero entirely, opting for a mainstream, rather camp approach to The Dark Knight's dark tale.

This, of course, was life before Christopher Nolan, who swept us off our feet with his interpretation of the Caped Crusader in 2005. Batman Begins was a gritty superhero story that had humanity and realism at its heart. In Christian Bale, Nolan gave us a Batman we could believe it, and with The Dark Knight Trilogy the two created one of the greatest movie franchises of all time.


Casino Royale: James Bond

Even the most die-hard Bond fan will admit that the secret agent's magic was fading with Pierce Brosnan's final film in 2002. The storyline, though ridiculous with its invisible cars and awful CGI, wasn't the problem - it was that Brosnan himself seemed to have run out of steam. Bond had become a bit of a caricature of himself.

Fast-forward to 2006 and Daniel Craig returns the spy franchise to its roots in prequel Casino Royale. The opening sequence alone told us we were watching something new as Bond earned his 00 status with his first kill in moody black and white. The brutality and realism of the reboot breathed much needed new life into the franchise, eschewing cheesy innuendo and cliche in favour of hardcore action.


Star Trek: Everyone

Having spawned several TV series and movies, the original Star Trek was so successful and so beloved, it seemed impossible that anyone would be able to take on the franchise and not only do it justice, but please its hoards of dedicated fans.

But in 2009, J.J Abrams did just that. In taking Kirk, Spock, Uhura and the Enterprise crew back to the academy to tell their story from the very beginning, the director cleverly created a parallel timeline for the series, paying homage to the original characters and storylines while giving himself room to manoeuvre in a newly created universe. Not only were there enough nods to the original series to keep fans happy, but also the opportunity for the franchise to boldly go where no Star Trek film has gone before.


The Amazing Spider-Man: Peter Parker

Some, including original franchise star Willem Dafoe, considered Sony's decision to reboot Spider-Man only a few years after Sam Raimi's trilogy a cynical attempt to cash in at the box office. After all, Raimi's films starring Tobey Maguire as the titular webslinger were a bona fide success, despite criticisms of corniness from naysayers.

But in a post-Nolan world appetite for comic book movies had grown exponentially, and Peter Parker's popularity was undeniable. The decision to revisit the character's origins - a story already told by Raimi - was a brave one, but Marc Webb's Andrew Garfield-starring reboot satisfied a yen for a darker, more somber and dramatic depiction of the hero more in line with modern comic book movies and Marvel's source material. 


Dredd: Judge Dredd

Remember 1995, when Sylvester Stallone was Judge Dredd? Oh, it was painful. Danny Cannon's depiction of the legendary comic book character was soulless, stilted and cartoonish. In an era of camp, violent action films it was the worst - awkward and lumbering, Judge Dredd did a disservice to its star, the comic strip on which it was based, and… well, cinema as a whole, really.

With its predecessor in mind, it's perhaps no surprise that Pete Travis' Dredd could only raise modest funding by Hollywood standards. But the resulting 2012 dystopian spectacular should be held up as a lesson to filmmakers everywhere. With the ever-brilliant Karl Urban barely visible under a helmet as the iconic, laconic Judge, the film was a masterpiece in visceral, violent storytelling - and rather beautiful to boot. Unfortunately, a lack of box office success makes a sequel unlikely, but it has nonetheless become a cult classic - and Urban the definitive Dredd.