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The original director of The Naked Gun, David Zucker, has renewed his verbal assault concerning the newly released revival featuring Liam Neeson, following a short period where he seemed to adopt a more conciliatory tone following the premiere of the film's cinema debut.

Director's Disapproval of the New Film's Style

In a recent interview, Zucker expressed that Seth MacFarlane, the producer behind the new Naked Gun and formerly the filmmaker and script collaborator of the Ted movies, "completely failed to grasp" the parody genre approach that Zucker, together with his collaborators Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, popularized in Airplane! and the three original Naked Gun films.

"Jerry, my sibling, and Jim Abrahams, our associate, started doing spoof comedies five decades in the past, and we developed a unique approach – and we executed it so effectively that it appears simple, evidently. Others began imitating it, like Seth MacFarlane for the recent reboot. He completely misunderstood it."

He added: "It might appear that we're just randomly trying ideas to see what sticks, but we're not. Consideration is involved."

The Irreplaceable Star

Zucker added that it was pointless to produce the film without Leslie Nielsen, who played Frank Drebin and passed away in 2010, saying: "They tried to replace Leslie Nielsen in the new Naked Gun, and he cannot be replaced. No one else can do that."

Previous Reservations and Shifting Tone

The filmmaker had earlier expressed opposition to plans to go ahead with a Naked Gun reboot, saying in 2024 that he was "not excited about having the series handed over to other people". He continued: "They have not contacted me to appear briefly or be involved in the writing. Whether or not they're going to do a good job with it, this style of parody, I mean it's not rocket science, but it is challenging."

Nonetheless, after a string of positive reviews and strong box office returns after its release in August, Zucker adopted a more agreeable stance, commenting: "I'm excited about it because it just shows that there's a healthy audience for comedy in movie theatres, and spoof in particular."

Return to Criticism Over Budget Concerns

Yet, Zucker resumed his criticism in the recent discussion, criticising the amount of money involved. "Large financial outlays and humor are incompatible, and in the recent reboot, you could see that they spent a lot of money on scenes full of technical pizzazz while attempting to replicate our style."

He added: "Everybody's in it for the money now, and that seems to be the sole motivation why they decided to produce a new Naked Gun."