It's Still a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/21/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

It had to happen: a remake of the outrageously popular Baby Boomer movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." The Hollywood Reporter reveals that next month director-producer Jerry Zucker ("Airplane!," "The Naked Gun" series) will start shooting a new version of the 1963 ensemble comedy -- which originally starred nearly every comic alive at the time. The story about the hunt for a $2 million hidden treasure will be updated and moved to Las Vegas. (In the original, the booty buried in California was $350,000.) The new title will be "The Rat Race," and the cast so far includes John Cleese, Jason Alexander, Kathy Najimy, Seth Green and, probably, Whoopi Goldberg, says the Reporter. A remake was announced once before, in 1986, by the original "Mad" producer-director Stanley Kramer, who wanted Robin Williams, among others, to star -- prompting original star Milton Berle to quip, "What a terrible idea." That project never, never, never, never reached fruition.