Nordling here.
When VACATION opened in 1983, I remember it well, because my friend's grandmother died on their family vacation, and when they got back we watched the movie. Talk about awkward. So the National Lampoon classic, written by John Hughes and directed by Harold Ramis, is still the ultimate primer movie on family vacations. And then, of course, there's Randy Quaid's insane cousin Eddie, who apparently has Asteroids and teaches his daughter to french kiss. It's still Chevy Chase's best movie, in my opinion.
And it's getting the good old reboot, according to Hollywood Reporter. Writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who brought us last year's HORRIBLE BOSSES, have turned in a script, and it's both a reboot and a sequel - Clark Griswold's son takes his family on a cross-country vacation. You'd think he'd learned his lesson through the original film and the sequels, and I'm sure there will be much ensuing of hilarity. No word on casting, but apparently Daley and Goldstein will co-direct. By the way, if the name John Francis Daley is familiar to you, he's good old Sam Weir from FREAKS AND GEEKS.
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION is already pretty timeless - I'm certain everyone can find something similar on their own family vacations in the movie - so I'm not too sure what a rebootquel will accomplish, but it is a different world from 1983, with GPS, and iPhones, iPads, and the like. Hopefully they'll cast someone really funny as Rusty - hey, they could always go with Anthony Michael Hall - and they obviously have big shoes to fill. They're walking in John Hughes' and Harold Ramis' territory.
