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Why original ‘Naked Gun' director says he won't watch reboot
(NEXSTAR) — This weekend, the wacky world of Lt. Frank Drebin and his 'Police Squad,' returns to theaters for the first time in 31 years. Directed by Akiva Schaffer ('Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping'), 'The Naked Gun' (2025) reboots the series with Oscar nominee Liam Neeson as its new star, playing Drebin's (the late Leslie Nielsen's) son.
While early reactions to 'The Naked Gun' have been positive, there's one person who won't be reviewing the film anytime soon: David Zucker, who directed the franchise's first two movies and who wrote/produced the third.
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Zucker (who's also known for directing 'Airplane!' and 'Scary Movie' franchise films) told TMZ back in April that he'd watched the trailer for the new film and was disappointed — both because he didn't like it and because he hadn't been consulted for the reboot.
'I never saw 'Airplane 2' because you can't unsee that stuff. I'm not planning on seeing the 'Naked Gun' remake either,' Zucker told TMZ. 'I regret having seen the trailer for it.'
Zucker, 77, also negatively compared the trailer for the new film to seeing a notorious 2007 viral pornographic video starring two girls and a beverage container. 'I can't unsee it,' Zucker elaborated.
According to Zucker, he and his team submitted a script to Paramount in 2018 that he says they were told the studio liked. Zucker says he was later shocked that the property had been greenlit for a different creative team. Once the film was in production, Zucker said he was offered a producer credit on the film but rejected it based on the script.
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'I read the script and I politely told them I wasn't going to put my name on it,' Zucker told the Hollywood Reporter. 'They wanted nothing from me except my name. They assume I'm old and using a walker and I can't do it anymore. I guess talent leaves after age 40 in Hollywood.'
Zucker also told THR in a different interview in May that he had doubts about the casting of Neeson, saying, 'Everybody thinks that they can do it, do spoof. It's really, really specific.'
Production drama aside, 'The Naked Gun' has plenty of anticipation behind it. In addition to Neeson, pop culture icon Pamela Anderson also joins as the film's female lead. Anderson, 58, received rave reviews last year for her return to the big screen in Gia Coppola's 'The Last Showgirl.'
'The Naked Gun' opens nationwide August 1.
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