The original director of The Naked Gun, David Zucker, has renewed his verbal assault concerning the newly released revival featuring Liam Neeson, after briefly appearing to adopt a more conciliatory tone in the aftermath of the film's theatrical release.
In a recent interview, Zucker stated that Seth MacFarlane, the creative force behind the new Naked Gun and previously the director and co-writer of the Ted movies, "totally missed" the spoof-comedy style that Zucker, together with his collaborators Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, popularized in Airplane! and the three original Naked Gun films.
"My brother, Jerry, and our partner, Jim Abrahams, began creating spoof comedies five decades in the past, and we originated our own style – and we did that so well that it looks easy, evidently. Others began imitating it, like the new film's producer for the recent reboot. He completely misunderstood it."
He added: "It can look like we're just throwing stuff up against the wall to see what sticks, but we're not. There's thought behind it."
The director further stated that it was futile to produce the film without Leslie Nielsen, who played Frank Drebin and passed away in 2010, saying: "They tried to replace Leslie Nielsen in the new Naked Gun, and you can't replace him. No one else can do that."
Zucker had previously objected to plans to go ahead with a Naked Gun reboot, remarking last year that he was "not enthusiastic regarding having the franchise given to different individuals". He continued: "I have not been approached to appear briefly or participate in scripting. Whether or not they're going to do a good job with it, this style of parody, I mean it isn't overly complex, but it's not easy."
Nonetheless, after a series of favorable critiques and impressive financial performance after its release in August, Zucker struck a more conciliatory tone, commenting: "I'm excited about it because it just shows that there's a strong market for comedy in cinemas, and spoof in particular."
However, Zucker resumed his criticism in the new interview, criticising the amount of money involved. "Big budgets and comedy are opposites, and in the recent reboot, you could see that they spent a lot of money on scenes full of technical pizzazz while attempting to replicate our style."
Zucker further noted: "Everybody's in it for the money now, and that seems to be the sole motivation why they wanted to do a fresh installment."
