Naked Gun creator David Zucker slams ‘moronic’ reboot: ‘Paramount ruined the franchise’

The Naked Gun co-creator David Zucker has claimed that Paramount and producer Seth MacFarlane “ruined” the long-running comedy franchise when they rebooted the film series last year.

The writer and director, 78, told The Independent that the decision to replace Leslie Nielsen with Liam Neeson was “moronic”.

However, Zucker added that he hasn’t actually seen the 2025 reboot, arguing: “If your daughter became a prostitute, would you go watch her work?”

Zucker, his brother Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams were the trio behind the hit 1980 comedy Airplane! They went on to create the cop show spoof Police Squad!, which ran for just six episodes in 1982.

The short-lived series starred Leslie Nielsen as bumbling detective lieutenant Frank Drebin, who reprised his role in three successful Naked Gun movies: 1988’s The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, 1991’s The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear and 1994’s Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult.

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Zucker directed the first two films in the series and co-wrote the third, but said that when Paramount decided to reboot the franchise, they overlooked his proposed script for a fourth film in favour of Family Guy creator MacFarlane’s version.

“Pat Proft, Mike McManus and I came up with a great idea to not set it in an LA cop station,” explained Zucker. “We set our Naked Gun 4 in the James Bond, Bourne Identity, Mission: Impossible world, so it wasn't the same thing. It wasn’t copying. It would have been with a young comic actor like Andy Samberg.”

Instead, he says, Paramount decided to “merely try to, with blinders on, copy a 30-40 year old idea... and replacing Leslie Nielsen, what a moronic thing to do!”

Zucker added that he hopes his version of the fourth Naked Gun film might still be produced, explaining: “Paramount ruined the franchise, and it’s too bad, but I repurposed the script as ‘Counter Intelijence’, spelled with one l and a j. It’s just such a great script. Maybe someday it’ll be done.”

The filmmaker is currently working to cast his own next movie, a film noir spoof called The Star of Malta. “It’ll look no different [to films] from 1949,” said Zucker. “It’ll be different than Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. That was very clever, the way he played scenes with Humphrey Bogart, but I think it takes away from the realism of the story. What I want to do is start with character. I’ve learned hard lessons from making my own mistakes.”

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Zucker, who also wrote and directed the 1984 spy spoof Top Secret! with Val Kilmer and the 1998 Trey Parker and Matt Stone sports comedy BASEketball, is now teaching his own online comedy class, MasterCrash. Lessons are based on the 15 rules of comedy that Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker developed when making their movies.

“I was motivated to create MasterCrash because I realised people want to do this and they want to do it in the worst way, like Seth MacFarlane did,” said Zucker.

Returning to the subject of last year’s The Naked Gun reboot, Zucker continued: “Seth called me, and the director [Akiva Schaffer] is a very nice guy. He came to my house twice. They are just so respectful and so complimentary. They idolise these movies. So how can you be angry or mad at somebody who keeps telling you what a genius you are? But it's frustrating in the business... all I care about is doing something original. I don't want to do what I did before.”

Asked why modern studios seem less inclined to back big-budget comedy movies, Zucker argued that those in charge are too risk-averse.

“They just so f***ed it up,” said Zucker with a laugh. “We would have truly rebooted the franchise with young actors, and Seth MacFarlane ruined it. So what can I do?”

He continued: “If you quote me on that can you put in parentheses ‘(laughs)’? It’s just so ridiculous. It’s funnier than any movie I've done, that Paramount just absolutely chose the wrong thing. It’s because of Hollywood. They went with the big producer. They’re just so afraid of doing anything original that they thought, on paper, you can't miss with Seth MacFarlane and then Liam Neeson is a big star, and Pam Anderson.”

Zucker added that he doesn’t blame the film’s cast, saying: “Liam and Pam are really great actors. I’ve worked with Pam before. She’s a lovely person, but the whole concept was wrong. Liam Neeson wasn’t at fault for it. It’s not like I would have cast some other old guy. I just didn’t want to do Seth’s whole concept.”

The filmmaker, who directed Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4, pointed out that other franchises have been rebooted with their original creators.

“The Wayans are doing the next Scary Movie. That's the smart decision for Paramount,” he said. “Mel Brooks is doing Spaceballs again, or some committee that he's hired, but somehow I was not allowed to do my own franchise. Figure that one out!”