The original Naked Gun director has slammed the upcoming reboot with Liam Neeson, dubbing it "painful".
David Zucker helmed both The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! and The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, and wrote and produced The Naked Gun 331⁄3: The Final Insult, all of which starred the late Leslie Nielsen.
This new film, which recently released a trailer ahead of its August release, has been written and directed by Akiva Schaffer (Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers).
"It's painful, but it's just not what I would have done," Zucker said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
"But you know, I don't want to just bash what they're doing, but I'd like to. But it’s not what I would have done, it is not our style. It's strange seeing it."
He added that The Naked Gun series and Airplane, which also received a sequel without his involvement, are his "babies".
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As seen in the trailer, the new The Naked Gun is serving as a continuation and a reboot.
Neeson is playing Frank Drebin Jr, and a photo of his father is briefly shown. Paul Walter Hauser also plays Captain Ed Hocken Jr, the son of George Kennedy’s character from the original films.
Alongside Schaffer, Family Guy star Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins serve as producers on the project.
The supporting cast including Pamela Anderson, Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes, CCH Pounder and Busta Rhymes.
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During the interview, Zucker also shared that he and original co-writer Pat Proft wrote their own version of Naked Gun 4. He said it "was not even a cop movie" and would have taken "a fresh approach".
"It was Naked Gun, but it's a spoof of Mission Impossible, The Bourne Identity and Bond, with the son of Drebin, who's a young guy. It would have been Andy Samberg," he explained. "We were doing a young cast and a fresh approach. Don't try to replace Leslie Nielsen. It's just another old guy, no matter how good they are."
The Naked Gun is scheduled to be released on August 1.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
