Reno 911! headed for big screen

The creators of Comedy Central's Reno 911! are taking their cop spoof to the big screen. Reno 911!: Miami, which starts shooting January 23 in Miami and Los Angeles, finds the officers visiting a national police convention in Miami Beach at the height of spring break. When the convention center is bio-attacked, it's up to Reno's "finest" to save the day.

The 20th Century Fox/Paramount production will be directed by Robert Ben Garant, a cocreator of the TV series. Garant also cowrote the script of the partially improvisational project and will star. The cast also includes cocreator-writers Thomas Lennon (who plays the flamboyantly gay Lt. Jim Dangle) and Kerri Kenney as well as series stars Niecy Nash, Mary Birdsong, Cedric Yarbrough, Carlos Alazraqui, and Wendi McLendon-Covey.

Garant, Lennon, and Kenney originally developed the pilot for the Fox network, which passed on the series. Reno 911! then was picked up and redeveloped by Comedy Central, a sister company of Paramount under the Viacom umbrella, and has aired there since 2003. (Tatiana Siegel, Reuters)