Airplane! may not look like a box office smash by todays standards, but, bringing in over $80 million gross was a massive success. You can see, then, why Paramount might want to squeeze a bit more cash out of the Airplane! property. It has become a cult classic since its release, so a big budget remake could capitalise on that, surely. Sorry, I wont call you Shirley again. The groan you let out in reaction to my lame attempt at reusing the "Dont call me Shirley" gag there is symptomatic of why an Airplane! reboot wouldnt work. We know these jokes already, and jokes dont tend to be better the second time around. The original had a perfect script from Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker. Leslie Nielsen was on the form of his life in the lead role. Theres not an ice cubes chance in hell that a reboot could repeat the trick. And if you cant do it better than the first time (as the sequel showed), you simply shouldnt do it again.
