Original Naked Gun Director Condemns Liam Neeson’s Reboot

The director of the first two Naked Gun movies, David Zucker, was left feeling unimpressed with Akiva Schaffer’s legacy sequel, which stars Liam Neeson. In his opinion, money was the only thing that anyone who took part in that film was after.

In an interview with Woman’s World, Zucker slammed the newest addition to the franchise. The director harshly accused him of ripping off the original films and somehow still missing the point at the same time.

Zucker claimed that he, his brother Jerry, and Jim Abrahams were the ones who created the kind of “spoof comedy” that films such as The Naked Gun fall under. He believed that ever since then, people in the entertainment industry have been trying to “copy” them because they were so good that they made it look “easy” to outsiders.

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. People started copying it, like Seth MacFarlane for the new ‘Naked Gun.’ He totally missed it.

Zucker also had some choice words regarding the new Naked Gun’s $42 million budget, while his film only cost $14.5 million. He stated that comedies should have a high price tag. However, that comparison might be a little unfair due to the fact that the new sequel was filmed in 2025 while Zucker’s was made in 1988. As most people are aware, prices for pretty much everything have skyrocketed over the past 37 years. If adjusted for inflation, the amount of money Zucker spent would equal around $38 million in 2025. So, it’s pretty close to what the latest Naked Gun reportedly cost, making his comments seem a little hypocritical.

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.

The director added that he believed the new Naked Gun was essentially just a cash grab. He heavily implied that everyone was only in it for the money.

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

The Naked Gun (2025) is available to stream on Paramount+.