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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, after briefly appearing to soften his stance in the aftermath 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 previously the filmmaker and script collaborator of the Ted movies, "completely failed to grasp" the spoof-comedy style that Zucker, together with his partners Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, made famous in Airplane! and the three original Naked Gun films.

"Jerry, my sibling, and Jim Abrahams, our associate, began creating spoof comedies 50 years ago, and we originated our own style – and we executed it so effectively that it appears simple, clearly. People started copying it, like the new film's producer for the recent reboot. He completely misunderstood it."

He added: "It might appear that we're just throwing stuff up against the wall to see what sticks, but we're not. There's thought behind it."

The Irreplaceable Star

The director further stated that it was futile to produce the film without Leslie Nielsen, who played Frank Drebin and who died in 2010, remarking: "They tried to replace Leslie Nielsen in the recent revival, and you can't replace him. Nobody else is capable of that."

Previous Reservations and Shifting Tone

The filmmaker had earlier expressed opposition to plans to go ahead with a Naked Gun reboot, remarking last year that he was "not excited about having the series handed over to other people". He continued: "They have not contacted me to make a cameo or be involved in the writing. Whether or not they're going to succeed with it, this style of parody, I mean it's not rocket science, but it's not easy."

However, after a string of positive reviews and impressive financial performance following its launch in August, Zucker adopted a more agreeable stance, commenting: "I am pleased by it because it just demonstrates there's a strong market for comedy in movie theatres, and parody specifically."

Return to Criticism Over Financial Aspects

However, Zucker returned to the attack in the new interview, criticising the amount of money involved. "Large financial outlays and humor are incompatible, and in the recent reboot, you could see that they invested heavily on scenes full of technical pizzazz while trying to copy our style."

He added: "Everybody's in it for the money now, and that seems to be the only reason why they wanted to do a fresh installment."