Original ‘Naked Gun’ Creator Slams Liam Neeson Reboot as ‘Stale’
Jaden Patel here, keeping score of the comedy world one dry remark at a time. David Zucker, director of the 1988 spoof classic The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, has publicly refused to watch the new reboot starring Liam Neeson and produced by Seth MacFarlane. This one’s got everything: veteran outrage, B-movie nostalgia, and a dash of highbrow bafflement.
Zucker, now 77, told the Daily Mail he won’t set foot in a theater showing the revival, bluntly asking, “Why would I?” The filmmaker who teamed up with his brother Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams to found the comedy powerhouse ZAZ is unimpressed by Paramount’s decision to bypass the original architects in favor of what he calls “not a fresh idea.”
The franchise relaunch, directed and co-written by Akiva Schaffer of Saturday Night Live fame, casts Neeson as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., the son of Leslie Nielsen’s iconic, bumbling cop. Pamela Anderson also pops in as a nod to ’90s TV viewers. Despite the modern nods to spy thrillers like Mission: Impossible, Zucker says slick action and star power don’t substitute for the goofy charm he first conjured in 1988.
In a candid admission, Zucker revealed he wrote a spec script for Naked Gun 4 and pitched it to Paramount, only to be sidelined. “I get why they picked Seth MacFarlane—he’s proven, and Liam Neeson is a huge name,” he quipped, “but we never pretended to cast Laurence Olivier or Al Pacino. We used B-movie actors who felt at home playing absurd.” He noted that O.J. Simpson “didn’t need to be funny,” just plausibly earnest, and Nielsen brought the perfect straight face. By contrast, he wondered what an Oscar-winning heavyweight like Neeson is mocking.
MacFarlane did reach out to Zucker, spending 10 minutes gushing about how much he idolized Airplane!, The Naked Gun, and Top Secret! Still, admiration, Zucker argued, doesn’t equal creative license. “My dry cleaner is a fan too, but I wouldn’t ask him to direct a comedy hit,” he said, delivering his trademark deadpan.
Critics have been more forgiving, however. The New York Post awarded the reboot four stars, praising it as “the funniest movie to hit theaters in a long time.” Rotten Tomatoes currently lists a 90% critic score and an 87% audience rating, suggesting that audiences may disagree with the original’s architect.
Despite his misgivings, Zucker admitted he hopes the reboot succeeds, if only to prove that “crazy ideas still resonate.” He’s both miffed and curious to see if a new generation will embrace a formula he helped create three decades ago.
So there you have it: the comedy legend who launched the fruitiest orange will sit out the sequel to his own punchline. Tune in next time for more sequel shocks and developer backstories—you know, the human comedy continues.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and Daily Mail, New York Post, Rotten Tomatoes
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
