Original Naked Gun creator David Zucker gives brutal verdict on Liam Neeson reboot
David Zucker, the creator of the Naked Gun franchise, has no plans to watch the reboot featuring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, and it's not just because he wasn't impressed by the film's trailer.
Zucker, who also directed the original 1980s police comedy, revealed that he wasn't snubbed from the reboot but was rather left out after Paramount Pictures decided to reject his script in favour of working with producer Seth MacFarlane.
The Naked Gun, which first hit cinemas in 1988 starring Leslie Nielson, Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalban and O.J. Simpson, was a box office hit. It comes after Liam and Pamela fuelled romance rumours with a cryptic social media post.
READ MORE: What is really going on with Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson after romance rumours
The spoof-comedy was followed by two sequels in the 1990s. Zucker, along with his brother Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams (otherwise known as comedy trio ZAZ), was also the creative force behind the 1980 cult classic Airplane! and he went on to direct films in the Scary Movie franchise.
"I wrote a whole script for Naked Gun 4 on spec for Paramount," Zucker shared with the Daily Mail. "I understand the studio's thinking to go with Seth MacFarlane. He's a proven commodity and Liam Neeson is a big star, but it's not a fresh idea."
During the early stages of the reboot's development, Zucker said he was approached by MacFarlane – best known as the creator of the long-running animated series Family Guy – who praised his work and told Zucker he 'idolised' the original Naked Gun films.
"I had a conversation with Seth and he spent 10 minutes just telling me how he idolized Naked Gun, Airplane, Top Secret," he said. "How can you be mad at anybody who tells you how great you are? But it's not enough to be a fan…The guy at my dry cleaners is a big fan, but it doesn't mean he can do Naked Gun."
The original Naked Gun film, based on the short-lived ABC series Police Squad! starred Nielsen as police detective Frank Drebin, as his character directly spoofed the widely popular crime dramas of the era. Following its release in December 1988, the film raked in $152.4 million on a budget of $12 million. In 1991, the sequel The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear was released followed by Naked Gun 33+1⁄3: The Final Insult in 1994.
In the reboot released this Friday, Neeson portrays bumbling cop Frank Drebin Jr. – who has followed his father's footsteps into law enforcement – while Anderson stars as femme fatale Beth Davenport. Former Saturday Night Live writer and The Lonely Island member Akiva Schaffer directed the remake, and also served as co-writer alongside Dan Gregor and Doug Mand.
Zucker criticised the 2025 version for sticking to the same old formula, with similar gags as the first instalment. He highlighted one particular joke in the film, when Anderson's Beth is instructed to 'take a chair' when she arrives in Drebin's office, to which she replies: "No thank you, I have plenty of chairs at home."
"We gave up doing those jokes 40 years ago in Police Squad," Zucker quipped before questioning Neeson's casting. OJ… he didn't need to be funny. And even Leslie Nielsen doesn't need to be funny. He just had to be a B movie actor. That's what we did... We didn't pretend to cast Lawrence Olivier or even Al Pacino, but Liam Neeson, for example, he's like Oscar quality. I think he may have won for Schindler's List. So I mean, what's he making fun of?"
Sadly, this isn't the first occasion Zucker has been sidelined by Paramount Pictures during the early development of one of his films for a remake; he was also excluded from the 1982 follow-up Airplane II, which was penned and helmed by Ken Finkleman. The follow-up was slated by critics and managed just $27.2 million in the United States and Canada, whilst the original raked in $83 million at the box office.
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