Vacation Gets the Reboot

Harold Ramis’ comedy classic Vacation, written by John Hughes and starring Chevy Chase at the absolute height of his prime, is getting a reboot from New Line Studios. The first film spawned a whole slew of sequels: European Vacation, Christmas Vacation, Vegas Vacation, and some dreadful direct-to-video names I’d rather not mention.

David Dobkin, the director of Wedding Crashers, has signed on to produce and possibly direct a sequel to Vacation which will focus on Clark Griswold’s son Rusty Griswold, as he takes his own family on a doomed road trip. This sounds like a perfectly good way to resuscitate the series, considering there would be plenty of room to integrate Chevy and Beverly D’Angelo back into the picture.

Here’s the caveats, though: Chase and D’Angelo haven’t signed a thing, and National Lampoon isn’t involved because Warner Bros. owns the rights to the characters. I’d hope that those three at least have a little influence on the finished project — it’s time for Chase to make a comeback, as signaled by his new show Community.

New Line is hearing pitches from writers this week. More news on the new Vacation as it develops.