{"id":119240,"date":"2025-08-04T22:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T22:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/119240\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T22:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T22:09:10","slug":"david-zucker-reacts-to-reboot-movies-opening-box-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/119240\/","title":{"rendered":"David Zucker Reacts to Reboot Movie’s Opening Box Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDavid Zucker<\/a>, who directed the original Naked Gun<\/a> film, sees the reboot\u2019s positive reception as a sign that this is a good year \u2014 even if he has no plans to watch the new movie that stars Liam Neeson<\/a> and Pamela Anderson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tZucker has been outspoken about feeling burned<\/a> that he and other members of the original 1988 film\u2019s team were not involved in Paramount<\/a>\u2018s latest The Naked Gun<\/a> feature, given that he had previously worked on a script for a fourth installment in the franchise. Director Akiva Schaffer<\/a>\u2018s new movie stars Neeson as the son of Frank Drebin \u2014 Leslie Nielsen<\/a>\u2018s character who was featured in the short-lived series Police Squad<\/a> and the first three Naked Gun films \u2014 and opened this weekend in third place<\/a> at the domestic box office with $17 million, a strong number for the modestly budgeted comedy.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m excited about it because it just shows that there\u2019s a strong market for comedy in movie theaters, and spoof in particular,\u201d Zucker tells The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cPeople are liking it, which is great. I really like the director, and I just couldn\u2019t wish him more well. I texted him already, saying, \u2018I hear the reviews are great, and it\u2019s tracking well.\u2019 He was very happy to hear from me, and we\u2019ll probably get together later in the month when the smoke clears.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat said, Zucker confirms that he still has no plans to see the new film. Zucker has previously explained that he worked on a script with Pat Proft and Mike McManus for a fourth Naked Gun that he shared with Paramount and would have centered on Drebin\u2019s thirty-something son. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLeslie Nielsen (left) and David Zucker on the set of 1991\u2019s Naked Gun 2 1\/2.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m not gonna see it, but I don\u2019t see any of the sequels that were of my material done by other people, and that\u2019s fine. I\u2019ve told Akiva that I have no intention to see it,\u201d Zucker says with a laugh. \u201cHe actually invited me to come see an early cut of it, but I told him there\u2019s nothing I could do to help because it really isn\u2019t what I would have done. That\u2019s not to say that he didn\u2019t actually end up doing a good movie. But I don\u2019t think I could help with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tZucker notes that he doesn\u2019t have any reservations about turning down an executive producer credit that Paramount offered. \u201cI won\u2019t take credit on anything that I didn\u2019t work on from the beginning. I don\u2019t need the money,\u201d he says. Zucker quips, \u201cAfter the agents and managers, it would have paid three electric bills, probably. If it\u2019s a big hit, Akiva should get the credit, and he deserves it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe filmmaker hopes that the buzz surrounding the new Naked Gun will help to push forward his project that was initially envisioned as the fourth Naked Gun film and is now entitled Counterintelijence. Zucker also has a noir spoof script called The Star of Malta<\/a> that he is hoping to shoot soon with a minimal budget.<\/p>\n

\n\tUltimately, Zucker wishes the best for the reboot and is grateful that producer Seth MacFarlane<\/a> called him shortly after the new movie\u2019s team had completed their script. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe spent the first 10 minutes telling me how much he loved Airplane, The Naked Gun and Top Secret,\u201d Zucker says with a laugh about being praised for his previous projects. \u201cI can\u2019t get mad at anyone who will tell me what a genius I am. That was a good conversation. I was glad that Seth called, but I told him politely, \u2018Good luck, but I can\u2019t put my name on this.\u2019 [But] everything happens for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Zucker, who directed the original Naked Gun film, sees the reboot\u2019s positive reception as a sign that…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":119241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74390,74391,171,18841,49475,74392,65822,15329,74393,49905,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-119240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-akiva-schaffer","9":"tag-david-zucker","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-leslie-nielsen","12":"tag-liam-neeson","13":"tag-naked-gun","14":"tag-pamela-anderson","15":"tag-paramount","16":"tag-seth-macfarlane","17":"tag-the-naked-gun","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114972784397405939","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}