New Line appears to have found no out-of-house talent suitable for directing its National Lampoon’s Vacation reboot. The company is eying the film’s writers, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, to assume the extra duties. Negotiations are ongoing, but were they to sign, this would be the first directing gig for either. Both men co-wrote last summer’s Horrible Bosses.
Their script for a new “Vacation” film has been floating around since 2009, and last we heard, Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin was onboard to see the film through production. With Dobkin out, Daley and Goldstein may be ready to direct upon completing the Horrible Bosses 2 script New Line commissioned back in January.
The Hollywood Reporter claims the film will be a sequel/reboot of the four-film “Vacation” franchise. The update features Rusty Griswold, the now grown-up son of the original Griswold clan, taking his family on their own vacation, with hilarious complications sure to follow. Rusty was played by a different actor in each film, including The Breakfast Club’s Anthony Michael Hall and The Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki.
Given Galecki’s busy schedule and the limited exposure of the other former Rustys, it’s likely someone new will take on the role of Griswold patriarch, though comparisons to original star Chevy Chase are sure to follow. A Chase cameo seems an inevitability, and since he’s been brushing up on his crazy-old-guy act on Community for a few years now, it might well be enough to draw in old franchise diehards.
