“Naked Gun” Creator Slams Liam Neeson Reboot: “It’s All About the Money Now”

David Zucker, the director behind the first two Naked Gun movies, has openly criticized the new reboot starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson.

In an interview with Woman’s World, Zucker said the film tried to copy the unique comedy style he and his team created but failed to capture it.

“My brother, Jerry, and our partner, Jim Abrahams, started doing spoof comedies 50 years ago, and we originated our own style — and we did that so well that it looks easy, evidently,” Zucker explained. “People started copying it, like Seth MacFarlane for the new Naked Gun. He totally missed it.”

The reboot, titled The Naked Gun, is directed by Akiva Schaffer, with MacFarlane serving as a producer. It follows Frank Drebin Jr., played by Neeson, as he follows in the footsteps of his father, the late Leslie Nielsen’s character, working to solve a murder case and save his police department.

Zucker said that trying to replace Nielsen was a mistake. “They tried to replace Leslie Nielsen in the new Naked Gun, and you can’t replace him. No one else can do that,” he said.

He also criticized the production budget. The new film reportedly cost about $42 million, while the original 1988 Naked Gun had a $15 million budget, which is roughly $41 million today after adjusting for inflation.

Zucker explained, “You shouldn’t spend too much money on comedies, and one of our rules is about technical pizzazz. 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.”

Zucker added, “Everybody’s in it for the money now, and that feels like the only reason why they wanted to do a new Naked Gun.”

He has previously shared that he had no plans to watch the reboot but noted its positive reception shows there is still a strong market for comedies, especially spoofs, in theaters. Zucker also mentioned that he declined an invitation to see an early cut, saying, “I told him there’s nothing I could do to help because it really isn’t what I would have done.”

Despite his criticisms, Zucker wished the new team well but remained clear that he felt the original creators should have been involved in some way.

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