One of the creators of the original Naked Gun series, David Zucker, has candidly spoken about The Naked Gun, the sequel/reboot directed by Akiva Schaffer and starring Liam Neeson. The original series was created by the collective known as ZAZ, consisting of Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker. While Abrahams passed away in 2024, the Zucker brothers decided not to get involved in the remake. The film is based on a completely new treatment, but is inevitably based on the beloved comedy franchise. When talking about the 2025 reboot, Zucker says the new film was an expensive attempt at comedy that fully “misses” the point.
Zucker recently spoke to Woman’s World about his decade-long career in spoof movies. The director is responsible for other films in the genre such as Top Secret!, and both Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4. Zucker is also currently promoting his online masterclass titled MasterCrash: A Crash Course in Spoof Comedy, in which he explains the 15 comedy rules used by ZAZ throughout their collaborations. The director says, “There’s a certain method to the madness,” while explaining the course. “We had our 15 rules, and I’m teaching them in the hopes that if anybody tries to do a movie like this again, they’ll do it right.” The Airplane! director continues:
“I think there’s an audience out there for any good story. You have to start with a good story and good characters. You need people who your audience is going to actually be invested in and care about. The kind of gag I love most is when nobody’s trying to be funny. They’re just acting.”
When talking about the new version of The Naked Gun, Zucker is not exactly shy to show his disdain for it. “They tried to replace Leslie Nielsen in the new Naked Gun, and you can’t replace him. No one else can do that,” the comedy legend says about the movie that sees Neeson play Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., the son of Nielsen’s Frank Drebin. Zucker adds:
“My brother, Jerry, and our partner, Jim Abrahams, started doing spoof comedies 50 years ago, and we originated our own style—and we did that so well that it looks easy, evidently. People started copying it, like [producer] Seth MacFarlane for the new Naked Gun. He totally missed it.”
Was 2025’s ‘The Naked Gun’ an Expensive Cash Grab?
The Naked Gun reboot grossed a little over $102 million from its $42 million budget, which is actually not a bad performance in the comedy genre. However, $42 million in the comedy genre does seem a bit excessive, even if such an amount will get you an A-list actor like Liam Neeson. Zucker said this about the film’s cost:
“You shouldn’t spend too much money on comedies, and one of our rules is about technical pizzazz. Big budgets and comedy are opposites, and in the new Naked Gun, you could see that they spent a lot of money on scenes full of technical pizzazz while trying to copy our style.
“Everybody’s in it for the money now, and that feels like the only reason why they wanted to do a new Naked Gun. Comedy changes, and I wouldn’t do the same thing anymore.”
- Release Date
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August 1, 2025
- Runtime
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85 minutes
- Writers
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Akiva Schaffer, Doug Mand, Dan Gregor, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
- Producers
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Erica Huggins
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