‘Naked Gun’ Reboot ‘Totally Missed It,’ Says Original Director
David Zucker is still mad about the Naked Gun reboot.
Zucker and collaborator Pat Proft had their own script ready to go for Naked Gun 4, a screenplay he claims Paramount rejected because of a sexist gag about breast reduction. (The original Naked Gun movies are full of off-color bits — if one joke was really the problem, wouldn’t Paramount just ask for a new punchline?)
That narrative plays into a gripe Zucker shared with Fox News earlier this year, complaining that “PC (culture) has ruined comedy to a large extent.” In other words, stepping away from tired boob jokes is why “there’s no good comedy.”
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Zucker grumbles to anyone who’ll listen that he was shut out of Akiva Schaffer’s remix. “They have not contacted me to make a cameo or be involved in the writing,” Zucker said, according to the Guardian. “Whether or not they’re going to do a good job with it, this kind of spoof, I mean it’s not rocket science, but it’s not easy.”
Since then, Zucker has been all over the place, ping-ponging his opinions about a Naked Gun that he wasn’t part of. During the summer, for example, he proclaimed that he was boycotting the sequel and refused to see it.
Then, when the box office was decent and the reviews were enthusiastic, he went public with his support. “People are liking it, which is great,” Zucker told Hollywood Reporter. “I really like the director, and I just couldn’t wish him more well.”
Now, Zucker’s all out of well wishes again. Curiosity won out, and it sounds like Zucker saw the movie — how else could he tell Woman’s World this week that the Liam Neeson version of Naked Gun was “horrible”?
He complained that the reboot ripped off the comic-parody style originated by Zucker, his brother Jerry, and their partner Jim Abrahams. “People started copying it, like Seth MacFarlane for the new Naked Gun. He totally missed it.” (While MacFarlane produced the new comedy, he neither wrote the script nor directed the film.)
“Everybody’s in it for the money now, and that feels like the only reason why they wanted to do a new Naked Gun,” Zucker moaned. That would have been an odd strategy for Paramount, considering the last comedy to make $100 million was 2017’s Girls Trip before Freakier Friday accomplished the goal this summer.
Zucker had more laments about money. “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,” he said.
Maybe Zucker hasn’t seen the new Naked Gun after all — besides its hilariously horny CGI snowman, there’s not a lot of “technical pizazz” on hand. As for big budgets? The reboot’s $42 million budget is almost exactly what Zucker spent on the original, adjusted for inflation, according to Entertainment Weekly. His The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult both cost significantly more than the 2025 version, when you factor in the current value of a dollar.
Did the new comedy copy Zucker’s style? Of course, in the same way that Star Wars movies nod to the original. What’s the point of rebooting Naked Gun if you’re going to invent an entirely different kind of comedy? The real problem here is Zucker’s hurt feelings, and no budget, no matter how big, is going to make that go away.