Queen Latifah in Last Holiday

Paramount Pictures has fast-tracked a remake of the 1950 British comedy Last Holiday, with Queen Latifah set to play the role originated by Alec Guinness. The change in gender is being brought to life by writers Peter Seaman and Jeffrey Price, who wrote Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

The original film was based on a J.B. Priestley story. Guinness played an ordinary man who learns he will die shortly. He cashes in everything he owns and heads to a swank resort before punching out for good. Because he doesn't know how the wealthy behave, his manner confuses residents, who decide his eccentricity means he is super-rich and must be listened to.

The contemporized version will star Latifah as a shy, unassuming sales clerk who vanishes to a European resort upon learning of her diagnosis. Thinking she has nothing to lose, she becomes increasingly outrageous and irreverent.

Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith are set to play cops in an untitled actioner also being developed at Paramount.