Original ‘Naked Gun’ Director Says Reboot Was ‘Trying to Copy Our Style’: ‘Everybody’s in it For the Money’

David Zucker, who directed the first two “Naked Gun” films, recently told “Woman’s World” he was not impressed by the reboot led by Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson. He said the film “totally missed” the now-classic spoof style of comedy pioneered by Zucker, his brother Jerry and Jim Abrahams.

“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.”

MacFarlane was one of the leading producers on the project and contributed “additional literary material,” according to IMDb. Lonely Island co-founder Akiva Schaffer directed the film and penned the script with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand.

Zucker also took issue with the production costs of the 2025 “Naked Gun.” The reboot carried a $42 million price tag, while Zucker’s 1988 original cost $14.5 million, according to AFI. However, when adjusted for inflation, $14.5 million comes out to roughly $38 million in 2025, which is not far off from the budget of the new “Naked Gun.”

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

The “Airplane!” director added that he feels the new “Naked Gun” was made exclusively for financial reasons. Zucker asserted, “Everybody’s in it for the money now, and that feels like the only reason why they wanted to do a new ‘Naked Gun.’”