The Original ‘Naked Gun’ Director Says ‘Just Being a Fan’ Like Seth MacFarlane Doesn’t Mean You Can Make a Reboot

One of this year’s most highly-anticipated summer movies is the reboot of The Naked Gun, starring Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin’s son, who was canonically born in 1994. While the recently-released teaser trailer didn’t address Frank Jr.’s age, it did feature Neeson brutally murdering a gang of crooks, Taken-style, followed by an admittedly pretty funny O.J. joke.

One person who definitely isn’t looking forward to the new movie is David Zucker. The director and co-writer of the original Naked Gun told TMZ that the teaser trailer called to mind a notoriously revolting X-rated video, because he “can’t unsee it.” And he was somehow even harsher during a recent interview with Fox News.

Zucker noted that director Akiva Schaffer and producer Seth MacFarlane seem very “sincere,” about their love of The Naked Gun and “aren’t bad people.” But he’s clearly annoyed that they weren’t interested in his creative input. “(MacFarlane) called me, and for 10 minutes he just told me how much he loved my movies,” Zucker recalled. “However, when I first heard that he was going to do it, I kind of applied hat in hand to help, or to be involved. And he said, ‘Not until we do the script.’ He didn’t want to meet with me. So that’s his choice. All I can say is, that’s Hollywood.”

Zucker also suggested that the filmmakers’ appreciation for the classic Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker comedies won’t necessarily enable them to replicate that style. “What we do is very specific, and just being a fan doesn’t mean that you can do it,” Zucker argued. “Remember those ads for kids’ things in the ‘60s? It says, ‘Kids don’t try this at home?’ That’s what I would say, but it’s too late, this thing is coming out.”

While that might sound condescending, he does actually have a point. There have been countless failed attempts to copy the ZAZ approach, some of which even starred Frank Drebin himself, Leslie Nielsen.

But, on the other hand, pop-culture history is full of examples of “fans” making movies that breathe new life into old genres. 

Zucker’s hostility toward the reboot can be partly explained by the fact that, prior to Schaffer’s movie, Zucker co-wrote a script for The Naked Gun 4 that Paramount rejected, possibly due to a sexist joke involving breast reduction and a kevlar vest. During the Fox News appearance, Zucker offered up some more details about what his reboot would have looked like. “It was not even a cop movie,” Zucker explained. “It was Naked Gun, but it was a spoof of Mission: Impossible, The Bourne Identity and Bond, with the son of Drebin, who’s a young guy. It would have been Andy Samberg! We were doing a young cast and a fresh approach. Don’t try to replace Leslie Nielsen. It’s just another old guy, no matter how good they are.”

Of course, it could be argued that after Get Smart, Spy Hard, multiple Johnny English movies, the Austin Powers trilogy and two Agent Cody Bankses, another spy parody may not have been all that “fresh” either.