Chevy Chase Out Of Syracuse: Vacation

Reports surfaced this week that an ill-fated attempt to reboot with the "Vacation" franchise for the first time since 1998 with Chevy Chase reprising his not-award winning role as Clark Griswold ran aground leading to talks with "Office" star Ed Helms to take the role of Griswold son Rusty as an adult spearheading a family vacation.

According to de-classified documents obtained by the Seal Valley Business Journal, New Line Cinema had originally hired ex-:Community" show-runner Dan Harmon to direct his own screenplay titled “Syracuse Vacation” in which Clark Griswold is under the impression he is purchasing plane tickets for a trip to Syracuse, Sicily only to learn he accidentally purchased them for Syracuse, New York instead. Thus, the Griswold family finds itself trapped in one room in a Super 8 in the midst of a blizzard leading them to play Milton Bradley’s The Game Of Life at which point The Game Of Life becomes strangely……real.

However, upon reading the script, Chase reportedly dismissed it as "a mediocre f***ing screenplay...It ain't funny to me." He demanded Harmon be removed from the project at which point New Line brought Shawn Levy on aboard as director and Jason Filardi (who penned the script for “Bringing Down The House”) onboard as writer. The new movie eliminated the meta quality, resorting to Clark’s zany showdown with a malfunctioning vending machine, a wacky front desk clerk with a mysterious vendetta, Clark’s hare-brained attempts to commandeer a snowplow and clear the parking lot to make way for his family’s escape, and a cameo by Brooklyn Decker as a local “meteorologist.” Chase was reportedly called it "a phenomenal f***ing screenplay...It's funny to me."

New Line, however, balked when Chase’s salary demands sky-rocketed. “They say they don’t need me,” Chase was rumored to declare. “They need me. They need me like the forest needs the trees. I’ll show ‘em what their franchise looks like slashed and burned.” Hence, Ed Helms as grown-up Rusty. 

No one seems concerned about the non-presence of Chase.