August 3, 2025 • 44 mins
The Naked Gun Movie - Full Interviews The Naked Gun is a 2025 American action comedy film directed by Akiva Schaffer, who co-wrote the script with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand. It serves as a legacy sequel to Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994) and is the fourth film in The Naked Gun franchise. The film stars Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Kevin Durand, and Danny Huston. Its plot follows the son of Lt. Frank Drebin who must succeed in his father's footsteps to prevent the closure of Police Squad.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Akiva Schaeffer, and I co wrote and
directed the Naked Gun the new one. So I got
the call saying how would you like to be involved
with a new Naked Gun, which immediately I thought, no,
I don't at all because the first Naked Gun is
a perfect movie. Then they said, how would you like
to do a new Naked Gun with Liam Neeson? And
(00:23):
that kind of opened my mind to the possibilities of
how it could be a new thing, how it could
exist alongside the old Naked Gun and honor the old
Naked Gun and take the spirit of the old Naked Gun,
but maybe be a new movie. And so I tried
to take kind of the spirit of their style of
comedy and their style of jokes, and specifically that they
(00:45):
would cast dramatic actors and place them into a genre
and be really true to the genre. All the things
that kind of were the hallmarks of what they did.
I try to keep that intact while acknowledging that thirty
five years of action movies and police procedurals have happened
since they made the old ones, and that Liam Neeson
(01:07):
is not Leslie Nielsen. He is his own individual actor person.
He does have a specific set of traits and talents
that are not a particular set of skills that are
just as exciting. Well, Liam, I think understood the assignment,
(01:27):
and that's why he was excited to do it, and
that's why I'm sure why Seth. You know, a couple
of years before I came on, in one of his
conversations with Liam was like, oh my god, and he realized, like,
you'd be perfect to do it. Liam's one of the
few remaining true like old school movie star leading men
with gravitas, and there was nobody underneath him in the list.
(01:49):
There was no second choice to even be had because
there's kind of nobody like him out there. How would
I describe Liam and Pam's chemistry electric, hot, steamy. They
just jumped into the deep end. I can't say that
because there weren't rehearsals and things like that. So it
was really just as soon as they started doing their sexy,
(02:12):
uh you know, kind of double indemnity style dialogue to
each other that it was like, oh, yeah, it's all there.
Me and Dan Dug have been thinking about, like, oh,
are we going to try a montage? There's a famous
montage from the first Naked Gun that is very enjoyable,
and in this one, we were like, man, how do
we do a montage that feels completely different from that?
And there's been so many montages in so many movies
(02:35):
doing kind of eighties love montages, so it's very well
worn territory, and I was trying to think of a
fresh approach. And for whatever reason, at four in the morning,
I woke up and I was laying in bed, and
I went and it came to me, and I literally
just wrote beat for beat the bullet points into my
phone's notes app and it's almost identical to what is
in the movie. It barely got changed from a notes
(02:58):
bullet point to finding. It was just fun to get
somebody who's so the opposite of Liam. So Paul showed
up and he just the two of them together just
even visually, looked like such a nice old school comedy
pairing of how different they are. You know, Liam's a
very tall guy. I don't want to say Paul short,
(03:19):
but it's we all look short next to Liam, and
so it was just nice to get a little bit
of Yin and yang there, a little a little bit
of a mixture that felt really nice together Liza brought
a youthful energy to the film. She did great because
she's such a goofy person in real life, but she
(03:41):
knew the assignment as well. I actually didn't know Liza's
work before I watched her audition, which is a testament
to how good she did, because I just saw it
and she was playing it really straight and really normal
and very much like a police officer and not trying
to be funny. And so we hired her and and
I met her in real life, and she was the
(04:01):
biggest ham I've maybe ever met, just a goofball. So
kudos to her that she was able to fully turn
that off to do what this movie needs. I think
the first Naked Gun movie is a perfect movie, but
what we can do is a little different and kind
of honor the spirit of it and try some new stuff.
(04:21):
And I think if you come in with an open mind,
you'll enjoy this one, and hopefully enjoy it a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Hey what up. I'm Paul Walter Hauser and I play
Ed hockin Junior. I suppose in this beautiful reboot of
the Naked Gun series, Ed is the kind of guy
who really takes his job seriously and at the same time,
he is forced with sort of dealing with the fumbles
(04:49):
and the stumbles of his partner, his senior partner, that
being Liam Neeson in the role of Frank Drubbin Jr.
Frank Junior and Ed Junior really love each other. They
are like brothers or or uncle and nephew mentor mentee,
and in this story they get tangled up and yet
another mess, not unlike with their fathers had to combat
(05:09):
in the original films, and I like to think that
that friendship is tested and stretched, and in the end
you see that these two guys, no matter what the
case is, no matter what turns it's taking, they're always
going to have each other's backs. I like to think
that Ed respects Frank so much that he's never trying
to make him feel lowly or bad for screwing something
(05:33):
up or misinterpreting something. He loves him too much to
really reveal that. William Neese's the best dude. I've been
a fan of his for years, but seeing him in
this role, you know he really owns the comedy and
commits an off camera. He's very funny and self deprecating
and is willing to just jump into the spirit of improvisation,
which is what you need in a movie like this.
(05:55):
But playing off him was a blast, and it was
very much me to sometimes be the straight man to him,
which I'm kind of used to in other movies or
TV being the really wild person. So it was nice
to take a back seat and let him kind of
be the butt of the joke while I'm kind of
the audience pov. Sometimes when you go back to the
original you know, Police Squad or Naked Gun, even the
(06:21):
Leslie Nielsen film Airplane, people then associate Leslie Nielsen as
having been a comedic actor, but he started off in
drama and it was that sort of straight laced, dramatic
delivery that made him so perfect for those original films
and the ones that came after. So we really, I
think had that same style in mind and thought, you
(06:44):
know who better than Liam Neeson, who we've all come
to fear and respect as these authority figures and mercenaries
on screen. But he also has a fatherly endearing quality
to him, So I really think Liam ended up being
the perfect person to over the threads and absurdities of
Frank Grebin. Liza was amazing. I wasn't familiar with her work,
(07:08):
and she came in and was just an absolute like
spark plug. She was just constant energy and good vibes.
And and then I found out she has like one
hundred million followers on Instagram or something, and she's a
very accomplished creative, very much a DIY spirit, and she
(07:28):
brought a really good energy to the set. And I
remember when she was leaving, we didn't want her to
because she was so much fun. And I'm just like
super stoked to watch this with an audience like a
packed theater somewhere, because I think waiting on those reactions
and meaning like is it gonna work? Is it gonna work?
And then getting the laugh it's very satisfying. I come
(07:49):
from a stand up comedy background, so the idea of
sitting in the back of the theater and kind of
winding up and knowing where the jokes are and seeing
how they play, I mean, that's that's gonna be so
much fun. I think this is a Kievish fourth feature,
if I'm not mistaken. So what he brings to the
table is equal parts Lucy Goosey, Let's try, let's have fun,
(08:11):
let's play with this also showing up and just knowing
what you want and what you need, So there's a
finite noess to him that's really professional. But then there's
also the fun malleability that we've come to expect in
the wacky comedy he's helped co create. And that's like,
that's all you can ask from a comedy director. They
bring professionalism and they've done their homework and they're ready
(08:34):
to go, but they can also be moved by the
sort of spirit of comedy in the moment and be
willing to kill their creative darlings and just try something
totally new. We all know this crime genre where cops
are taking themselves seriously and crying in the rain and
firing their gun in the air at a gravesite. Like
(08:57):
there's that sort of melodramatic yet roidal intensity that we're
obviously doing a send up of and having fun with.
And you know, I think we're due for one of
these movies. Naked Gun is something we need right now.
We need to laugh. We need to laugh at something
that's trying to take itself too seriously and as being
(09:18):
overly intense, and we need more Liam Neeson's that's just
my take on the matter. I think there are certain
genres that beg to be seen in a packed theater
opening weekend. Horror films are great in person with a
full theater, and comedies are amazing. There is something chemically
(09:39):
necessary that happens to your body and your brain when
you sit in a room full of strangers and have
a laugh. It happens at stand up shows, and it
happens when you're in a movie theater watching a naked
gun movie. So I really hope people treat themselves and
just unplugged from the crazy world and come into our
(10:00):
crazy world of Frank Drebin for just two hours. I
think you're really going to be pleased with the outcome.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
I started with Seth. He and Liam had been talking
about this movie and the idea of a remake for
years since they worked together on Ted two, and it
was sort of one of those ideas that as soon
as you hear it, you're like, oh my god, he's
definitely the right guy for this, meaning Liam Neeson and
(10:29):
I think that finding the right guy to play a
version of a classic movie is the most important thing
before you move forward. And I think for all these
years between the original movie and now, it was about
trying to find that person that could do it right.
I was a big fan of The Naked Gun early on,
(10:52):
and the idea of seeing a silly, funny movie, I
think always appealed to me, even you know, as I
went in to my twenties. I've always loved comedy. I
am not a comedic genius like the two people that
have helped me make this movie, Seth and Akiva, so
(11:13):
I feel lucky to be sort of surrounded by them.
When we talked to the studio about trying to find
the right director, Akiva was our first choice and we
went to him, and by the time we were out
of our first meeting, I knew he was the right guy.
He was excited too, and you could feel the excitement
in the room, and that excitement has connected everybody to
(11:39):
this movie from the beginning, from you know, Dan and
Doug our writers who worked with Akiva before, But on
this one, it was definitely a challenge. There were so
many jokes and so many iterations of every scene up
through the writing period, up through production into production. It
(12:01):
was a constant barrage of funny and I think that's
what I hope for and that's what we got in Tikima.
I think what we knew about Liam going into this
was that he had baggage from his previous movies as
the sort of tough, complicated good guy. He was this sophisticated, classy,
(12:27):
emotionally complicated, gravelly voiced icon. So the idea of him
playing Frank Dreben Junior, this goofy, insane part in this goofy,
insane movie called The Naked Gun was a thrill. He was,
(12:48):
I think, super excited about it as long as he
continued to play it straight and that everything he said
felt like it was coming from the guy that we
all loved and knew from his previous work. It was
going to be hilarious, and that's how we played it,
and that's how he played it. And so it was
(13:11):
like seeing Liam Neeson in one of those movies and
everything that's coming out of his mouth is wrong and
it just makes you laugh. Pamela was one of those, like,
you know, dark horse ideas that came into our conversation
early on with Carmen Cuba, who was our casting director,
and she was all in on her. I think that
(13:32):
we found her at the perfect moment for our movie,
and that she was willing to do something like this
at the time in her life that she was sort
of open to anything was kind of kismet for all
of us. When Liam and Pam first met, you just
saw it. You know, they're these two beautiful, iconic, statuesque actors,
(13:58):
and seeing them stand sam side by side for our
first camera tests were just beautiful and amazing. For Liam
and Pam, I think that there was a generational connection
that they had. They just immediately liked each other. They
were comfortable with each other. I think for Pam it
(14:21):
was such a thrill to be doing this part and
to be part of this production that, you know, her
enthusiasm about being in the movie I think also helped
just the chemistry and the back and forth between her
and Liam, Paul and Liam together. Just looking at the
(14:43):
two of them makes me laugh. And I think that
it was a great casting choice for the movie. He
played his reliable, always there, you know, unflappable partner to
Liam Neeson's character, the Frank Drebin character, and so it
(15:04):
was kind of a perfect odd couple and it really worked.
I'm a big proponent of seeing movies in theaters. I
think that the shared experience of being with a bunch
of people in a room and something makes everybody laugh
is very rare. The first time we screened this movie,
(15:25):
watching the audience watch the movie was such a joy.
I mean, it was so amazing to see people laughing
and obviously so happy for us that our jokes were
actually funny and that they were landing for people. And
I think we all got into this business as filmmakers
to bring some kind of emotional response, whether it's laughter
(15:49):
or anxiety or crying or some kind of emotional dramatic response,
and laughter is truly the most amazing thing to watch.
And when it works, when everybody in the audience is
goodfye and you're you know, elbowing your partner next to you,
(16:10):
there's nothing like it.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Hi there, my name is Kevin Durant, and I play
Steig Gustafson and the Naked Gun. I got involved just
because I got sent the script and I think they
were checking to see if I if I would be
interested in playing the character. But funny enough, I was
on a party bus with with with my friend Matt
(16:36):
Betanelli O Pay and he was asking me what do
you got coming up now? And the party bus. We
were going theater to theater, sneaking in to see Abigail,
the film that we had done together, and and I said, well,
I got this offer for for for this film, this comedy.
I never get to do comedies. And he was like, well,
what is it? And I told him it was The
Naked Gun and he said he said, he said, ah, yeah,
(17:02):
my best friend since I was three is directing that.
And so he went off about Akiva and and I
felt like I knew Akiva by the time we finished
that evening. So he had been texting back and forth
with the Kiva and they're asking me. He was asking
Kifa was asking me questions through that, and uh yeah,
(17:26):
I was like, okay, this is this is gonna be
a lot of fun. I was a gigantic fan of
the Leslie Nilsen films, as probably most everyone was. The
idea of Liam Neeson coming in and playing his son,
playing Frank Dreben Junior just seemed like the most perfect
(17:47):
thing I had heard of the comedy is. You know,
I didn't know how I was going to play the
comedy because I'm pretty rubber faced and animated, and uh,
I've had to hold back a lot of that because
(18:08):
you know, you're you're you're playing the seriousness of the
moment and you let the the the actual situation uh
be the funny part. So it's it's uh. It took
a little bit of of of training by Kiva. Stig
Gustafson is uh basically the henchman for mister Kane. He's
(18:30):
kind of his go to man. I I run security
for everything that has to do with the planet Caine.
He's an efficient, uh henchman, uh, at least he tries
to be. Liam Neeson honestly is one of my great
(18:52):
heroes so uh in in in the acting world. So
I I had been watching him and going out of
my way to find his films and always noticing this
this very tall, incredible, incredibly compelling actor. And I was like, oh,
(19:12):
when I grow up, I want to be like him.
Because I was another tall actor trying to figure out,
well do tall actors get work in film? I really
didn't know. I thought that maybe I would only be
able to play you know, creatures and whatnot. When I
(19:33):
went to set, they said, do you want to meet Liam.
He's right around the corner doing fight rehearsal. And I
became a little boy, and I got really scared and shy,
and they're like, oh, he'll want to meet you, and
I was like, I don't want to bother them. And
then I poked my head around the corner and he
saw me ride away and he was like Jemen durand
and he came and shook my hand and told me
(19:57):
that he was excited that I was there, and then
he loved my work. And it's so funny because you
know they say, don't meet your heroes, but Liam Neeson
is even better than I could have imagined him to be,
and so fun to work with and you know, compassionate, generous,
(20:18):
very committed, fun guy. Hamla Anderson as Beth is pretty
genius casting. She's yeah, I haven't gotten to spend a
lot of time with her, but immediately what you get
from Pamela is just she has this extreme sincerity and
(20:44):
this this sweetness and innocence, and she's very, very funny,
and I think I think people are going to be
really really happy with I'm blown away by what she's doing.
The other day, she was doing this one scene and
we were all just standing in pea puddles because she
(21:06):
was so funny and so committed and yeah, it's really terrific.
My special training for this was uh bleaching my hair.
It was a rigorous, intense training session where my scalp
was on fire. But I was doing it for this
(21:27):
character so that I could get into the sand space
and here I am blonde and beautiful. Dude. You could
turn my hair purple, you could, you could shave it,
you could put a wig down to my way. I'm
always about trying to look different and be someone else,
so I was. I was all about it. Well, I mean,
(21:49):
Seth is he's cutting edge comedy and always kind of
tongue in cheek and higher thinking smart comedy. Uh so
he's perfect for this world. And I've got my night
vision binoculars out from the building across the way, trying
to see what lean what Frank Dreben's up to h
(22:15):
And there there he is with uh Pamela, and there
they're they're kind of on this date of sorts and
the situations that arise, all of the innuendo once the
the the the drapes are closed and just seeing these
(22:37):
silhouettes and then seeing through the walls and not having
any sense of dimension, the images that came out of it,
Uh were so ridiculous. And to think that, you know,
I'd get to play. The reactions to that was kind
(22:58):
of hilarious and Itch kind of calmed. He is deeply
needed right now in the world. We really need to
laugh right now, we all do. I sure do. We
all want to laugh so bad. I'm always scouring, you know,
trying to find something to make me laugh. Well, here
(23:21):
you are.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Hi.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
I'm Eliza Koschi and I play Detective Barnes in The
Naked Gun. I was very excited to find out that
The Naked Gun, an adored franchise, was in the best
hands humanly possible. Akivas was stoked to work with him.
He was an incredible director and also love love love
the Leslie Nielsen to Liam Neeson Baton pass, not just
because their name's rhyme, but because they're both beyond capable
(23:45):
of this character. He has a very particular set of
skills that one. It's an incredible franchise. I mean, Leslie
Nielsen is a comedy legend who characters that I studied,
studied him, so it came from the source of himself.
There's guy, there's puns, there's double nandras, there's double the fun.
There's giggles, as Liam says, yeah, a lot of giggles
(24:07):
Leslie Nielsen set the tone for that time, and we're
bringing it back because who doesn't love a good dose
of nostalgia. I've watched him for years, so to work
with him as a director was a totally different capacity
myself as the performer. Right, he gave some really great
direction that I didn't anticipate being so clear and so
wonderful because he has a performer understands what a performer
(24:29):
needs to hear in order to perform. But he told me, hey,
you are acting as though this is a comedy, and
I said you're welcome, But then he said, no, I
need you to play it as a drama. The comedy's
going on behind you in the background, but I need
you to give still stoic, subtle drama. So I did,
(24:49):
and that was just clear and concise. We haven't seen
Liam Neeson do much comedy, but what we do know
is that he has a particular set of skills, skills
that he's developed over a long career. He absolutely heaven
sent little angel I adore Liam. He's the cutest, sweetest man.
On the planet. And when you're that dramatic and that
terrifying of a stature, you have to be a really
(25:10):
nice person, and he is. Paul Walterhauser is a masterclass
of a human being. How to be a good dad,
how to be a good friend, how to be an
avid reader on set. He is an adorable specimen that
I got to learn and absorb so much from his stillness,
his choices, his specificity is so incredibly yummy to watch.
(25:31):
I can't wait for you to watch it too. The
Naked Gun is about the son of Frank Dreben, who's
thrust into a murder mystery about Pam's dead brother and
a billionaire tech gilt. You deserve to go see The
Naked Gun in theaters where it was destined to be enjoyed.
You deserve to enjoy it at Max's capacity, laughing as
loud as you possibly can with community. I mean, we
(25:52):
all know laughter as medicine. So go hear yourselves and
watch The Naked Gun.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
I was a huge fan of the Zucker Brothers growing up.
By loved Airplan, I loved The Naked Gun. I loved
Police Squad. The first time I saw a naked gun
I had already seen Airplane, was already a huge fan,
and I tracked down the six episodes of Police Squad
and found that they were just as funny as the movie,
(26:18):
And so that variety of humor the Zucker Brothers mel
Brooks became just kind of a staple of my childhood
and I kind of sought it out wherever I could,
and it informed a lot of the comedy that I
produced later on in my career. My part of this
was really just having the thought a while back that
(26:39):
Liam Neeson would be really funny in a Naked Gun reboot,
and that was kind of that. That's really the extent
of my contribution to this iteration, and a Kiva Shaffer
and his team came along, and as far as this
iteration and how it came about and how, you know,
(27:03):
we were able to find our way in that, that's
a one hundred percent of the credit goes to him.
He really had a sense of how to write for Liam.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
He really.
Speaker 6 (27:12):
Was was really good about playing by his own rules
that he had established. The world does have to have
some sort of grounding at its core, and Akiva was
really good about being really, really true to the to
the world that he had created, and there you don't
see a lot of inconsistencies in his script. It's it's
(27:33):
it really, it does feel like it's there's a discipline
that hearkens back to to what the Zucker Brothers did.
Liam is game for a lot. He's he if he
trusts you, he'll try anything. And the first time I
spoke to him, he said, listen, you know I'm not
I'm not a comedian. This is not what I do.
I'm not a comic. So if we go into it
with that understanding that the lines that I'm doing will
(27:58):
be dramatic lines that are funny because of the way
I'm delivering them, and that's how it's got to work.
And luckily that's the essence of what these kinds of
movies are. So it was perfect because like, yeah, this
is this is this is exactly what we want you
to do. So he's a really smart guy who understands
his own talents and his own abilities. And that's why
(28:20):
the idea of Liam doing this was so exciting because
I thought, this is the one guy who might be
able to pull this off, and he did. For these
kinds of movies, it really is you know, it's just
about casting the person who's already there, the person who
just doesn't really need a whole lot of instruction as
(28:41):
far as how to be that character. They kind of
come in already in the in the I mean, Liam
Neeson is you know what you know, you're gonna get
Liam Neeson and that's the that's the key. And I
think it's the same thing with Pam. It's like it's
it's what you want for that character is Pam Anderson,
So why not get Pam Anderson. What she's giving you
is sincere and completely real, and you know she's she's
(29:02):
not trying to play the comedy. But at the same time,
there's just enough of that kind of you know, natural
Marilyn monroeishness that she brings to the table. All storytelling
is is communal. I mean it, you know, goes all
the way back to Greek theater, where it's like the
theater is a it's a communal experience and it's more
(29:26):
fun with people. And I think particularly with comedy. With comedy,
it's it's, you know, watching a comedy by yourself is
not as much fun as watching it with other people,
particularly if it's you know, something with a lot of
hard laughs. It's just more fun to watch it with
a group. And certainly this movie and this kind of
(29:46):
comedy lends itself to you know, to an audience. It's
just more fun to to have that communal experience of
sharing a laugh. People are always kind of ready to laugh.
And and there aren't a lot of comedies out there that,
even on television, they're out to make you laugh. There's
a lot of television comedies that are out to win
(30:07):
awards and to be you know, thoughtful and to be
important with a capital I, and not a whole lot
that are like, we're comedy. That's our job above all else,
and if something gets in the way of that, then
we're not necessarily a comedy or something else. And there
are very few of those types of movies and TV
(30:29):
shows now, and I think people are kind of starved
for it. And I think they're starved for something like
The Naked Gun. I think they're starved for that kind
of movie. It's it's been a while.
Speaker 7 (30:40):
My name is Sam Hoffman. I am an executive over
at Fuzzy Door, which is Seth MacFarlane's production company, and
I've been with the movie for about four years now,
and it's changed a lot over this time, but it's
been an incredible experience, you know, working with a Kiva
and Dan and Doug and Liam and Pamela and Erica
(31:03):
and Seth to bring this story to life. I was
definitely a fan growing up of the Naked Gun movies.
I watched them mostly on VHS with my parents and
with my sisters. We you know, I was born a
year before the last Naked Gun film came out, so
for me, the fandom was very much multi generational. My
(31:27):
parents were really into it and so I got really
into it. And you know, the spoof genre was so
strong for so many years, and I'm thrilled to be
a part of the team that's bringing them back. I
really love all of the set pieces that Akiva, Dan
and Doug came up with. They created this movie that
takes what we know and love from the action and
(31:51):
thriller genres and turn them on its head, turned all
of them on their heads. The sequence that I really
like the best was in the Bengal Club, in the
jazz sequence, when Pamela's character Beth gets up on stage
to distract the bad guy, so Liam's character Frank Dreben
(32:15):
Junior could sneak into the back room and get some
security footage. And when Pamela gets on stage, she is magnetic.
She is incredible as she scats this wacky, zany jazz
sequence and she did it over and over again on
set for an entire room filled with people watching her,
(32:38):
and she did such an incredible job. It's funny, it's fresh,
and it feels like, you know, a jazz club that
we would all go to. When we approached our version
of Naked Gun, we looked at doing the same thing
in terms of spoofing a genre that is familiar to people,
(32:58):
that they feel nostalgia that they want to have again
and turning it on its head. And especially with incredible
performances from Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, were able to
take people into this world that they recognize and change
it completely. And I think that's what makes a really
(33:22):
great spoof. It's being unexpected, it's leaning into what people
are known for and doing something that's completely out of
left field in a way that makes people shocked, surprised,
and ultimately laugh. The entire crew brought into Akiva's vision
(33:42):
for spoofing these movies from the nineties, and so our
entire goal was to capture that noir tone, that action
thriller feeling, and every single department fell in line with
that vision. You know, Brandon Frost, as he approached that vision,
did so with incredible tact. He was able to make
(34:08):
this atmosviriic noir, cool visual tone to what could have
been a very easy comedy. We made very specific choices,
and specifically Brandon made choices that highlighted exactly how we
were approaching this film from the get go. The reason
(34:29):
why we don't see these movies very often is that
they're really, really hard to make. It takes very specific,
talented people to bring this all together. It takes a
star like Liam Neeson, who everyone knows as this dramatic
action movie star who can deliver something so surprising, like
(34:53):
Frank Dreben Junior. It takes a moment like the one
that Pamela Anderson's in now, where she is delivering a
side of herself to the public that no one ever
saw before, this side of herself that is nuanced and smart.
And I think that now is the time when all
(35:16):
of these puzzle pieces fit together to make this great film.
Now is the perfect time for a Naked Gun film
because we all want to laugh. There is something so
incredible about being in a theater, surrounded by strangers or
people you know and just laughing, having a great time.
(35:37):
And if there's one thing that this film delivers on,
it's being funny. Dan Doug Anikiva wrote one of the
most joke packed, hilarious scripts that I've ever read, and
they delivered on executing the incredible artistry that makes you
believe in it, that makes you feel like you are
(35:59):
part of this world. And I think being in a
movie theater watching that with your friends your family is
an experience that is not often given these days.
Speaker 8 (36:12):
I'm Pamela Anderson and I played Beth in the New
Naked Gun. How did I become involved in this project? Well,
I had to audition. I had an audition with Akiva Shaffer,
who shared my audition tape with Liam and I was
lucky that they offered me the role. Well, I've just
kind of restarted my career.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
So I.
Speaker 8 (36:32):
Did Broadway and then I did the Last show Girl,
and I thought it would be a nice juxtaposition to
do a high comedy after doing a drama, and so
that was exciting to play with him. Plus, I really
respond to comedy, and in this case, I mean, the
fact that they even thought of me for this was
(36:53):
so exciting, and so I'm glad I did it. I
love the Naked Guns. I thought that they were really
funny and they're just such crazy, silly comedies and I think,
you know, the world needs that right now. I think
everyone needs a good giggle, and this movie definitely has
some of those in them. Liam's fantastic. I mean, everyone
(37:16):
I think is going to fall in love. I think
it definitely honors the old and having Akiva direct, I mean,
it is comedy. I know people say comedy is hard,
but comedy is timing. It's there's so much that goes
into it that you know they're I mean, it's definitely
the inspiration comes from the original Naked Gun, but he
(37:40):
definitely put his own twist on it. There's some, definitely
some Akiva moments in it that are like no other.
I work a lot on the character before I even
get to the set. I like to bring a lot
with me and then just be flexible enough to work
with a director on the character. And I feel if
it's a drama or a high comedy, you still put
the work in. We talked a lot about her backstory
(38:02):
and just the storyline, and he's very, like I said, again,
scientific with the jokes, but I also really wanted to
bring honesty and authenticity to the character and vulnerability. So
it was a collaboration. But I see some very sincere
(38:22):
and tender moments, which I don't think you'd really expect
in a film like this, So I was really proud
to see that. I'm familiar with Liam's career. He's had
such an incredible career, starting in theater and just kind
of being part of this acting royalty, you know, from
Schindler's List and all the other films he's done. So
(38:46):
it was intimidating. I was afraid to meet him. I
was literally shaking the first day I came to rehearse
our first scene. But once we got going, I mean,
he's such a gentleman. He's such a sweetheart, and he's
so giving and generous and was so complimentary and supportive
that you know you can't help but fall in love
with Liam. I think the montage is some of my
(39:08):
favorite I really loved all the snowman scenes. It was
really cute, but it was all fun. I mean, it
was all exciting and fun and yeah, I mean I
love the connection. And like I said, it's very interesting
(39:29):
to work with such an incredible actor because I'm just
soaking it in like a sponge. I feel like I'm
new at this, so I really, you know, pay attention
and watch and observe him and on and off camera,
how he conducts himself is really incredible to witness and
to learn from. I mean, it's just, you know, one
laugh after another. I think it's really funny. I think
(39:51):
that people are gonna love all different parts of it.
There's definitely an audience for this. It's a genre but silly,
you know, busting out laughing. It's really wild and people
are gonna, hopefully, they're going to love it. I'm a
big supporter of going to the theater. I love going
(40:12):
to the theater, and Eddie movie is seen best on
a big screen and with all the stunts and the wild,
the craziness everything going on. And there's a lot of stuff.
There's layers, like if you see it once, you see it,
the next time you might see something different. There's a
lot of references and funny things in the background, and
so I think it's much better at big screen and
(40:33):
it's definitely one of those movies you need to have,
like you know, candy and popcorn and friends.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
And.
Speaker 8 (40:42):
You'll get a kick out of it much better in
a theater.
Speaker 9 (40:45):
Hello, I'm William Mason. I played detective of Frank Drebin
in the film Naked Gune. Frank Dreben. He's a very
commissa please inspiret there, but he's bumbling. He's not stupid,
(41:06):
but he's he has a naivety to him, finds themselves
in situations and kind of does the wrong thing but
with the right attitude, and it lands him and lots
of precarious situations that he has to hopefully in a
(41:29):
funny way, get out of, find a way out of.
You know, why did I want to be part of
this comedy? Well, Seth MacFarlane, who is an old pal,
called me up a couple of years ago and dangled
the idea of me doing this reboot of this character,
(41:49):
and I said it was interested. It's as simple as
that Akiva was. It was terrific to work with. He's
from the world of Saturday Night Live, uh and which
is a very funny show. He's very smart. He's a
comedy nerd. I would say, I mean that in the
(42:12):
best possible way. Very good writer, and this genre is
ken in you for me, certainly feature film comedy genre.
So I relied on him a lot. He was terrific
to work with. Our film has I would say, the
same tone as the originals, hopefully a lot of giggles
(42:37):
for the audience, some funny stuff, situations that the characters
find themselves in. Yeah, a lot of giggles. Do I
think this honors the originals? I yes, I think it does.
It certainly does not insult them, and it is called
(42:59):
Naked Gun. Pamela Anderson plays the fa fatale, I guess
is the best way to describe her character, who's very beautiful,
sexy and funny, and Pamela is all that and more.
Any scene with Pamela Anderson was was terrific and I
(43:21):
always looked forward to to working with her. I think
we got on well. She's certainly become a new pal Pamela.
She's terrific to work with. No big ego, no airs
and graces. We had We had a few laughs on set. Yeah,
Beth and myself, we Yeah, we we we transolve the
(43:50):
crime big crime in the film together, not always. We're
butting heads occasionally, but but that's part of the fun.
Paulhuser plays my sidekick Ed in the film. I hadn't
met Paul before. I've seen him in a couple of films.
(44:10):
He's very very good, very very talented, and hilariously funny.
I think it's important we as human beings, as groups
sit together and see entertainment ie movies, cinema in theaters.
It's a thrilling experience. It is, especially when it's a comedy,
(44:33):
to sit together with a bunch of strangers and laugh
the same stuff, giggle of the same stuff. I think
it's very important for our souls. We will fans like
about this film. I think I hope they will love it.
As I say, give audiences a few giggles, maybe a
couple of belly laughs.
My name is Akiva Schaeffer, and I co wrote and
directed the Naked Gun the new one. So I got
the call saying how would you like to be involved
with a new Naked Gun, which immediately I thought, no,
I don't at all because the first Naked Gun is
a perfect movie. Then they said, how would you like
to do a new Naked Gun with Liam Neeson? And
(00:23):
that kind of opened my mind to the possibilities of
how it could be a new thing, how it could
exist alongside the old Naked Gun and honor the old
Naked Gun and take the spirit of the old Naked Gun,
but maybe be a new movie. And so I tried
to take kind of the spirit of their style of
comedy and their style of jokes, and specifically that they
(00:45):
would cast dramatic actors and place them into a genre
and be really true to the genre. All the things
that kind of were the hallmarks of what they did.
I try to keep that intact while acknowledging that thirty
five years of action movies and police procedurals have happened
since they made the old ones, and that Liam Neeson
(01:07):
is not Leslie Nielsen. He is his own individual actor person.
He does have a specific set of traits and talents
that are not a particular set of skills that are
just as exciting. Well, Liam, I think understood the assignment,
(01:27):
and that's why he was excited to do it, and
that's why I'm sure why Seth. You know, a couple
of years before I came on, in one of his
conversations with Liam was like, oh my god, and he realized, like,
you'd be perfect to do it. Liam's one of the
few remaining true like old school movie star leading men
with gravitas, and there was nobody underneath him in the list.
(01:49):
There was no second choice to even be had because
there's kind of nobody like him out there. How would
I describe Liam and Pam's chemistry electric, hot, steamy. They
just jumped into the deep end. I can't say that
because there weren't rehearsals and things like that. So it
was really just as soon as they started doing their sexy,
(02:12):
uh you know, kind of double indemnity style dialogue to
each other that it was like, oh, yeah, it's all there.
Me and Dan Dug have been thinking about, like, oh,
are we going to try a montage? There's a famous
montage from the first Naked Gun that is very enjoyable,
and in this one, we were like, man, how do
we do a montage that feels completely different from that?
And there's been so many montages in so many movies
(02:35):
doing kind of eighties love montages, so it's very well
worn territory, and I was trying to think of a
fresh approach. And for whatever reason, at four in the morning,
I woke up and I was laying in bed, and
I went and it came to me, and I literally
just wrote beat for beat the bullet points into my
phone's notes app and it's almost identical to what is
in the movie. It barely got changed from a notes
(02:58):
bullet point to finding. It was just fun to get
somebody who's so the opposite of Liam. So Paul showed
up and he just the two of them together just
even visually, looked like such a nice old school comedy
pairing of how different they are. You know, Liam's a
very tall guy. I don't want to say Paul short,
(03:19):
but it's we all look short next to Liam, and
so it was just nice to get a little bit
of Yin and yang there, a little a little bit
of a mixture that felt really nice together Liza brought
a youthful energy to the film. She did great because
she's such a goofy person in real life, but she
(03:41):
knew the assignment as well. I actually didn't know Liza's
work before I watched her audition, which is a testament
to how good she did, because I just saw it
and she was playing it really straight and really normal
and very much like a police officer and not trying
to be funny. And so we hired her and and
I met her in real life, and she was the
(04:01):
biggest ham I've maybe ever met, just a goofball. So
kudos to her that she was able to fully turn
that off to do what this movie needs. I think
the first Naked Gun movie is a perfect movie, but
what we can do is a little different and kind
of honor the spirit of it and try some new stuff.
(04:21):
And I think if you come in with an open mind,
you'll enjoy this one, and hopefully enjoy it a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Hey what up. I'm Paul Walter Hauser and I play
Ed hockin Junior. I suppose in this beautiful reboot of
the Naked Gun series, Ed is the kind of guy
who really takes his job seriously and at the same time,
he is forced with sort of dealing with the fumbles
(04:49):
and the stumbles of his partner, his senior partner, that
being Liam Neeson in the role of Frank Drubbin Jr.
Frank Junior and Ed Junior really love each other. They
are like brothers or or uncle and nephew mentor mentee,
and in this story they get tangled up and yet
another mess, not unlike with their fathers had to combat
(05:09):
in the original films, and I like to think that
that friendship is tested and stretched, and in the end
you see that these two guys, no matter what the
case is, no matter what turns it's taking, they're always
going to have each other's backs. I like to think
that Ed respects Frank so much that he's never trying
to make him feel lowly or bad for screwing something
(05:33):
up or misinterpreting something. He loves him too much to
really reveal that. William Neese's the best dude. I've been
a fan of his for years, but seeing him in
this role, you know he really owns the comedy and
commits an off camera. He's very funny and self deprecating
and is willing to just jump into the spirit of improvisation,
which is what you need in a movie like this.
(05:55):
But playing off him was a blast, and it was
very much me to sometimes be the straight man to him,
which I'm kind of used to in other movies or
TV being the really wild person. So it was nice
to take a back seat and let him kind of
be the butt of the joke while I'm kind of
the audience pov. Sometimes when you go back to the
original you know, Police Squad or Naked Gun, even the
(06:21):
Leslie Nielsen film Airplane, people then associate Leslie Nielsen as
having been a comedic actor, but he started off in
drama and it was that sort of straight laced, dramatic
delivery that made him so perfect for those original films
and the ones that came after. So we really, I
think had that same style in mind and thought, you
(06:44):
know who better than Liam Neeson, who we've all come
to fear and respect as these authority figures and mercenaries
on screen. But he also has a fatherly endearing quality
to him, So I really think Liam ended up being
the perfect person to over the threads and absurdities of
Frank Grebin. Liza was amazing. I wasn't familiar with her work,
(07:08):
and she came in and was just an absolute like
spark plug. She was just constant energy and good vibes.
And and then I found out she has like one
hundred million followers on Instagram or something, and she's a
very accomplished creative, very much a DIY spirit, and she
(07:28):
brought a really good energy to the set. And I
remember when she was leaving, we didn't want her to
because she was so much fun. And I'm just like
super stoked to watch this with an audience like a
packed theater somewhere, because I think waiting on those reactions
and meaning like is it gonna work? Is it gonna work?
And then getting the laugh it's very satisfying. I come
(07:49):
from a stand up comedy background, so the idea of
sitting in the back of the theater and kind of
winding up and knowing where the jokes are and seeing
how they play, I mean, that's that's gonna be so
much fun. I think this is a Kievish fourth feature,
if I'm not mistaken. So what he brings to the
table is equal parts Lucy Goosey, Let's try, let's have fun,
(08:11):
let's play with this also showing up and just knowing
what you want and what you need, So there's a
finite noess to him that's really professional. But then there's
also the fun malleability that we've come to expect in
the wacky comedy he's helped co create. And that's like,
that's all you can ask from a comedy director. They
bring professionalism and they've done their homework and they're ready
(08:34):
to go, but they can also be moved by the
sort of spirit of comedy in the moment and be
willing to kill their creative darlings and just try something
totally new. We all know this crime genre where cops
are taking themselves seriously and crying in the rain and
firing their gun in the air at a gravesite. Like
(08:57):
there's that sort of melodramatic yet roidal intensity that we're
obviously doing a send up of and having fun with.
And you know, I think we're due for one of
these movies. Naked Gun is something we need right now.
We need to laugh. We need to laugh at something
that's trying to take itself too seriously and as being
(09:18):
overly intense, and we need more Liam Neeson's that's just
my take on the matter. I think there are certain
genres that beg to be seen in a packed theater
opening weekend. Horror films are great in person with a
full theater, and comedies are amazing. There is something chemically
(09:39):
necessary that happens to your body and your brain when
you sit in a room full of strangers and have
a laugh. It happens at stand up shows, and it
happens when you're in a movie theater watching a naked
gun movie. So I really hope people treat themselves and
just unplugged from the crazy world and come into our
(10:00):
crazy world of Frank Drebin for just two hours. I
think you're really going to be pleased with the outcome.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
I started with Seth. He and Liam had been talking
about this movie and the idea of a remake for
years since they worked together on Ted two, and it
was sort of one of those ideas that as soon
as you hear it, you're like, oh my god, he's
definitely the right guy for this, meaning Liam Neeson and
(10:29):
I think that finding the right guy to play a
version of a classic movie is the most important thing
before you move forward. And I think for all these
years between the original movie and now, it was about
trying to find that person that could do it right.
I was a big fan of The Naked Gun early on,
(10:52):
and the idea of seeing a silly, funny movie, I
think always appealed to me, even you know, as I
went in to my twenties. I've always loved comedy. I
am not a comedic genius like the two people that
have helped me make this movie, Seth and Akiva, so
(11:13):
I feel lucky to be sort of surrounded by them.
When we talked to the studio about trying to find
the right director, Akiva was our first choice and we
went to him, and by the time we were out
of our first meeting, I knew he was the right guy.
He was excited too, and you could feel the excitement
in the room, and that excitement has connected everybody to
(11:39):
this movie from the beginning, from you know, Dan and
Doug our writers who worked with Akiva before, But on
this one, it was definitely a challenge. There were so
many jokes and so many iterations of every scene up
through the writing period, up through production into production. It
(12:01):
was a constant barrage of funny and I think that's
what I hope for and that's what we got in Tikima.
I think what we knew about Liam going into this
was that he had baggage from his previous movies as
the sort of tough, complicated good guy. He was this sophisticated, classy,
(12:27):
emotionally complicated, gravelly voiced icon. So the idea of him
playing Frank Dreben Junior, this goofy, insane part in this goofy,
insane movie called The Naked Gun was a thrill. He was,
(12:48):
I think, super excited about it as long as he
continued to play it straight and that everything he said
felt like it was coming from the guy that we
all loved and knew from his previous work. It was
going to be hilarious, and that's how we played it,
and that's how he played it. And so it was
(13:11):
like seeing Liam Neeson in one of those movies and
everything that's coming out of his mouth is wrong and
it just makes you laugh. Pamela was one of those, like,
you know, dark horse ideas that came into our conversation
early on with Carmen Cuba, who was our casting director,
and she was all in on her. I think that
(13:32):
we found her at the perfect moment for our movie,
and that she was willing to do something like this
at the time in her life that she was sort
of open to anything was kind of kismet for all
of us. When Liam and Pam first met, you just
saw it. You know, they're these two beautiful, iconic, statuesque actors,
(13:58):
and seeing them stand sam side by side for our
first camera tests were just beautiful and amazing. For Liam
and Pam, I think that there was a generational connection
that they had. They just immediately liked each other. They
were comfortable with each other. I think for Pam it
(14:21):
was such a thrill to be doing this part and
to be part of this production that, you know, her
enthusiasm about being in the movie I think also helped
just the chemistry and the back and forth between her
and Liam, Paul and Liam together. Just looking at the
(14:43):
two of them makes me laugh. And I think that
it was a great casting choice for the movie. He
played his reliable, always there, you know, unflappable partner to
Liam Neeson's character, the Frank Drebin character, and so it
(15:04):
was kind of a perfect odd couple and it really worked.
I'm a big proponent of seeing movies in theaters. I
think that the shared experience of being with a bunch
of people in a room and something makes everybody laugh
is very rare. The first time we screened this movie,
(15:25):
watching the audience watch the movie was such a joy.
I mean, it was so amazing to see people laughing
and obviously so happy for us that our jokes were
actually funny and that they were landing for people. And
I think we all got into this business as filmmakers
to bring some kind of emotional response, whether it's laughter
(15:49):
or anxiety or crying or some kind of emotional dramatic response,
and laughter is truly the most amazing thing to watch.
And when it works, when everybody in the audience is
goodfye and you're you know, elbowing your partner next to you,
(16:10):
there's nothing like it.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Hi there, my name is Kevin Durant, and I play
Steig Gustafson and the Naked Gun. I got involved just
because I got sent the script and I think they
were checking to see if I if I would be
interested in playing the character. But funny enough, I was
on a party bus with with with my friend Matt
(16:36):
Betanelli O Pay and he was asking me what do
you got coming up now? And the party bus. We
were going theater to theater, sneaking in to see Abigail,
the film that we had done together, and and I said, well,
I got this offer for for for this film, this comedy.
I never get to do comedies. And he was like, well,
what is it? And I told him it was The
Naked Gun and he said he said, he said, ah, yeah,
(17:02):
my best friend since I was three is directing that.
And so he went off about Akiva and and I
felt like I knew Akiva by the time we finished
that evening. So he had been texting back and forth
with the Kiva and they're asking me. He was asking
Kifa was asking me questions through that, and uh yeah,
(17:26):
I was like, okay, this is this is gonna be
a lot of fun. I was a gigantic fan of
the Leslie Nilsen films, as probably most everyone was. The
idea of Liam Neeson coming in and playing his son,
playing Frank Dreben Junior just seemed like the most perfect
(17:47):
thing I had heard of the comedy is. You know,
I didn't know how I was going to play the
comedy because I'm pretty rubber faced and animated, and uh,
I've had to hold back a lot of that because
(18:08):
you know, you're you're you're playing the seriousness of the
moment and you let the the the actual situation uh
be the funny part. So it's it's uh. It took
a little bit of of of training by Kiva. Stig
Gustafson is uh basically the henchman for mister Kane. He's
(18:30):
kind of his go to man. I I run security
for everything that has to do with the planet Caine.
He's an efficient, uh henchman, uh, at least he tries
to be. Liam Neeson honestly is one of my great
(18:52):
heroes so uh in in in the acting world. So
I I had been watching him and going out of
my way to find his films and always noticing this
this very tall, incredible, incredibly compelling actor. And I was like, oh,
(19:12):
when I grow up, I want to be like him.
Because I was another tall actor trying to figure out,
well do tall actors get work in film? I really
didn't know. I thought that maybe I would only be
able to play you know, creatures and whatnot. When I
(19:33):
went to set, they said, do you want to meet Liam.
He's right around the corner doing fight rehearsal. And I
became a little boy, and I got really scared and shy,
and they're like, oh, he'll want to meet you, and
I was like, I don't want to bother them. And
then I poked my head around the corner and he
saw me ride away and he was like Jemen durand
and he came and shook my hand and told me
(19:57):
that he was excited that I was there, and then
he loved my work. And it's so funny because you
know they say, don't meet your heroes, but Liam Neeson
is even better than I could have imagined him to be,
and so fun to work with and you know, compassionate, generous,
(20:18):
very committed, fun guy. Hamla Anderson as Beth is pretty
genius casting. She's yeah, I haven't gotten to spend a
lot of time with her, but immediately what you get
from Pamela is just she has this extreme sincerity and
(20:44):
this this sweetness and innocence, and she's very, very funny,
and I think I think people are going to be
really really happy with I'm blown away by what she's doing.
The other day, she was doing this one scene and
we were all just standing in pea puddles because she
(21:06):
was so funny and so committed and yeah, it's really terrific.
My special training for this was uh bleaching my hair.
It was a rigorous, intense training session where my scalp
was on fire. But I was doing it for this
(21:27):
character so that I could get into the sand space
and here I am blonde and beautiful. Dude. You could
turn my hair purple, you could, you could shave it,
you could put a wig down to my way. I'm
always about trying to look different and be someone else,
so I was. I was all about it. Well, I mean,
(21:49):
Seth is he's cutting edge comedy and always kind of
tongue in cheek and higher thinking smart comedy. Uh so
he's perfect for this world. And I've got my night
vision binoculars out from the building across the way, trying
to see what lean what Frank Dreben's up to h
(22:15):
And there there he is with uh Pamela, and there
they're they're kind of on this date of sorts and
the situations that arise, all of the innuendo once the
the the the drapes are closed and just seeing these
(22:37):
silhouettes and then seeing through the walls and not having
any sense of dimension, the images that came out of it,
Uh were so ridiculous. And to think that, you know,
I'd get to play. The reactions to that was kind
(22:58):
of hilarious and Itch kind of calmed. He is deeply
needed right now in the world. We really need to
laugh right now, we all do. I sure do. We
all want to laugh so bad. I'm always scouring, you know,
trying to find something to make me laugh. Well, here
(23:21):
you are.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Hi.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
I'm Eliza Koschi and I play Detective Barnes in The
Naked Gun. I was very excited to find out that
The Naked Gun, an adored franchise, was in the best
hands humanly possible. Akivas was stoked to work with him.
He was an incredible director and also love love love
the Leslie Nielsen to Liam Neeson Baton pass, not just
because their name's rhyme, but because they're both beyond capable
(23:45):
of this character. He has a very particular set of
skills that one. It's an incredible franchise. I mean, Leslie
Nielsen is a comedy legend who characters that I studied,
studied him, so it came from the source of himself.
There's guy, there's puns, there's double nandras, there's double the fun.
There's giggles, as Liam says, yeah, a lot of giggles
(24:07):
Leslie Nielsen set the tone for that time, and we're
bringing it back because who doesn't love a good dose
of nostalgia. I've watched him for years, so to work
with him as a director was a totally different capacity
myself as the performer. Right, he gave some really great
direction that I didn't anticipate being so clear and so
wonderful because he has a performer understands what a performer
(24:29):
needs to hear in order to perform. But he told me, hey,
you are acting as though this is a comedy, and
I said you're welcome, But then he said, no, I
need you to play it as a drama. The comedy's
going on behind you in the background, but I need
you to give still stoic, subtle drama. So I did,
(24:49):
and that was just clear and concise. We haven't seen
Liam Neeson do much comedy, but what we do know
is that he has a particular set of skills, skills
that he's developed over a long career. He absolutely heaven
sent little angel I adore Liam. He's the cutest, sweetest man.
On the planet. And when you're that dramatic and that
terrifying of a stature, you have to be a really
(25:10):
nice person, and he is. Paul Walterhauser is a masterclass
of a human being. How to be a good dad,
how to be a good friend, how to be an
avid reader on set. He is an adorable specimen that
I got to learn and absorb so much from his stillness,
his choices, his specificity is so incredibly yummy to watch.
(25:31):
I can't wait for you to watch it too. The
Naked Gun is about the son of Frank Dreben, who's
thrust into a murder mystery about Pam's dead brother and
a billionaire tech gilt. You deserve to go see The
Naked Gun in theaters where it was destined to be enjoyed.
You deserve to enjoy it at Max's capacity, laughing as
loud as you possibly can with community. I mean, we
(25:52):
all know laughter as medicine. So go hear yourselves and
watch The Naked Gun.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
I was a huge fan of the Zucker Brothers growing up.
By loved Airplan, I loved The Naked Gun. I loved
Police Squad. The first time I saw a naked gun
I had already seen Airplane, was already a huge fan,
and I tracked down the six episodes of Police Squad
and found that they were just as funny as the movie,
(26:18):
And so that variety of humor the Zucker Brothers mel
Brooks became just kind of a staple of my childhood
and I kind of sought it out wherever I could,
and it informed a lot of the comedy that I
produced later on in my career. My part of this
was really just having the thought a while back that
(26:39):
Liam Neeson would be really funny in a Naked Gun reboot,
and that was kind of that. That's really the extent
of my contribution to this iteration, and a Kiva Shaffer
and his team came along, and as far as this
iteration and how it came about and how, you know,
(27:03):
we were able to find our way in that, that's
a one hundred percent of the credit goes to him.
He really had a sense of how to write for Liam.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
He really.
Speaker 6 (27:12):
Was was really good about playing by his own rules
that he had established. The world does have to have
some sort of grounding at its core, and Akiva was
really good about being really, really true to the to
the world that he had created, and there you don't
see a lot of inconsistencies in his script. It's it's
(27:33):
it really, it does feel like it's there's a discipline
that hearkens back to to what the Zucker Brothers did.
Liam is game for a lot. He's he if he
trusts you, he'll try anything. And the first time I
spoke to him, he said, listen, you know I'm not
I'm not a comedian. This is not what I do.
I'm not a comic. So if we go into it
with that understanding that the lines that I'm doing will
(27:58):
be dramatic lines that are funny because of the way
I'm delivering them, and that's how it's got to work.
And luckily that's the essence of what these kinds of
movies are. So it was perfect because like, yeah, this
is this is this is exactly what we want you
to do. So he's a really smart guy who understands
his own talents and his own abilities. And that's why
(28:20):
the idea of Liam doing this was so exciting because
I thought, this is the one guy who might be
able to pull this off, and he did. For these
kinds of movies, it really is you know, it's just
about casting the person who's already there, the person who
just doesn't really need a whole lot of instruction as
(28:41):
far as how to be that character. They kind of
come in already in the in the I mean, Liam
Neeson is you know what you know, you're gonna get
Liam Neeson and that's the that's the key. And I
think it's the same thing with Pam. It's like it's
it's what you want for that character is Pam Anderson,
So why not get Pam Anderson. What she's giving you
is sincere and completely real, and you know she's she's
(29:02):
not trying to play the comedy. But at the same time,
there's just enough of that kind of you know, natural
Marilyn monroeishness that she brings to the table. All storytelling
is is communal. I mean it, you know, goes all
the way back to Greek theater, where it's like the
theater is a it's a communal experience and it's more
(29:26):
fun with people. And I think particularly with comedy. With comedy,
it's it's, you know, watching a comedy by yourself is
not as much fun as watching it with other people,
particularly if it's you know, something with a lot of
hard laughs. It's just more fun to watch it with
a group. And certainly this movie and this kind of
(29:46):
comedy lends itself to you know, to an audience. It's
just more fun to to have that communal experience of
sharing a laugh. People are always kind of ready to laugh.
And and there aren't a lot of comedies out there that,
even on television, they're out to make you laugh. There's
a lot of television comedies that are out to win
(30:07):
awards and to be you know, thoughtful and to be
important with a capital I, and not a whole lot
that are like, we're comedy. That's our job above all else,
and if something gets in the way of that, then
we're not necessarily a comedy or something else. And there
are very few of those types of movies and TV
(30:29):
shows now, and I think people are kind of starved
for it. And I think they're starved for something like
The Naked Gun. I think they're starved for that kind
of movie. It's it's been a while.
Speaker 7 (30:40):
My name is Sam Hoffman. I am an executive over
at Fuzzy Door, which is Seth MacFarlane's production company, and
I've been with the movie for about four years now,
and it's changed a lot over this time, but it's
been an incredible experience, you know, working with a Kiva
and Dan and Doug and Liam and Pamela and Erica
(31:03):
and Seth to bring this story to life. I was
definitely a fan growing up of the Naked Gun movies.
I watched them mostly on VHS with my parents and
with my sisters. We you know, I was born a
year before the last Naked Gun film came out, so
for me, the fandom was very much multi generational. My
(31:27):
parents were really into it and so I got really
into it. And you know, the spoof genre was so
strong for so many years, and I'm thrilled to be
a part of the team that's bringing them back. I
really love all of the set pieces that Akiva, Dan
and Doug came up with. They created this movie that
takes what we know and love from the action and
(31:51):
thriller genres and turn them on its head, turned all
of them on their heads. The sequence that I really
like the best was in the Bengal Club, in the
jazz sequence, when Pamela's character Beth gets up on stage
to distract the bad guy, so Liam's character Frank Dreben
(32:15):
Junior could sneak into the back room and get some
security footage. And when Pamela gets on stage, she is magnetic.
She is incredible as she scats this wacky, zany jazz
sequence and she did it over and over again on
set for an entire room filled with people watching her,
(32:38):
and she did such an incredible job. It's funny, it's fresh,
and it feels like, you know, a jazz club that
we would all go to. When we approached our version
of Naked Gun, we looked at doing the same thing
in terms of spoofing a genre that is familiar to people,
(32:58):
that they feel nostalgia that they want to have again
and turning it on its head. And especially with incredible
performances from Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, were able to
take people into this world that they recognize and change
it completely. And I think that's what makes a really
(33:22):
great spoof. It's being unexpected, it's leaning into what people
are known for and doing something that's completely out of
left field in a way that makes people shocked, surprised,
and ultimately laugh. The entire crew brought into Akiva's vision
(33:42):
for spoofing these movies from the nineties, and so our
entire goal was to capture that noir tone, that action
thriller feeling, and every single department fell in line with
that vision. You know, Brandon Frost, as he approached that vision,
did so with incredible tact. He was able to make
(34:08):
this atmosviriic noir, cool visual tone to what could have
been a very easy comedy. We made very specific choices,
and specifically Brandon made choices that highlighted exactly how we
were approaching this film from the get go. The reason
(34:29):
why we don't see these movies very often is that
they're really, really hard to make. It takes very specific,
talented people to bring this all together. It takes a
star like Liam Neeson, who everyone knows as this dramatic
action movie star who can deliver something so surprising, like
(34:53):
Frank Dreben Junior. It takes a moment like the one
that Pamela Anderson's in now, where she is delivering a
side of herself to the public that no one ever
saw before, this side of herself that is nuanced and smart.
And I think that now is the time when all
(35:16):
of these puzzle pieces fit together to make this great film.
Now is the perfect time for a Naked Gun film
because we all want to laugh. There is something so
incredible about being in a theater, surrounded by strangers or
people you know and just laughing, having a great time.
(35:37):
And if there's one thing that this film delivers on,
it's being funny. Dan Doug Anikiva wrote one of the
most joke packed, hilarious scripts that I've ever read, and
they delivered on executing the incredible artistry that makes you
believe in it, that makes you feel like you are
(35:59):
part of this world. And I think being in a
movie theater watching that with your friends your family is
an experience that is not often given these days.
Speaker 8 (36:12):
I'm Pamela Anderson and I played Beth in the New
Naked Gun. How did I become involved in this project? Well,
I had to audition. I had an audition with Akiva Shaffer,
who shared my audition tape with Liam and I was
lucky that they offered me the role. Well, I've just
kind of restarted my career.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
So I.
Speaker 8 (36:32):
Did Broadway and then I did the Last show Girl,
and I thought it would be a nice juxtaposition to
do a high comedy after doing a drama, and so
that was exciting to play with him. Plus, I really
respond to comedy, and in this case, I mean, the
fact that they even thought of me for this was
(36:53):
so exciting, and so I'm glad I did it. I
love the Naked Guns. I thought that they were really
funny and they're just such crazy, silly comedies and I think,
you know, the world needs that right now. I think
everyone needs a good giggle, and this movie definitely has
some of those in them. Liam's fantastic. I mean, everyone
(37:16):
I think is going to fall in love. I think
it definitely honors the old and having Akiva direct, I mean,
it is comedy. I know people say comedy is hard,
but comedy is timing. It's there's so much that goes
into it that you know they're I mean, it's definitely
the inspiration comes from the original Naked Gun, but he
(37:40):
definitely put his own twist on it. There's some, definitely
some Akiva moments in it that are like no other.
I work a lot on the character before I even
get to the set. I like to bring a lot
with me and then just be flexible enough to work
with a director on the character. And I feel if
it's a drama or a high comedy, you still put
the work in. We talked a lot about her backstory
(38:02):
and just the storyline, and he's very, like I said, again,
scientific with the jokes, but I also really wanted to
bring honesty and authenticity to the character and vulnerability. So
it was a collaboration. But I see some very sincere
(38:22):
and tender moments, which I don't think you'd really expect
in a film like this, So I was really proud
to see that. I'm familiar with Liam's career. He's had
such an incredible career, starting in theater and just kind
of being part of this acting royalty, you know, from
Schindler's List and all the other films he's done. So
(38:46):
it was intimidating. I was afraid to meet him. I
was literally shaking the first day I came to rehearse
our first scene. But once we got going, I mean,
he's such a gentleman. He's such a sweetheart, and he's
so giving and generous and was so complimentary and supportive
that you know you can't help but fall in love
with Liam. I think the montage is some of my
(39:08):
favorite I really loved all the snowman scenes. It was
really cute, but it was all fun. I mean, it
was all exciting and fun and yeah, I mean I
love the connection. And like I said, it's very interesting
(39:29):
to work with such an incredible actor because I'm just
soaking it in like a sponge. I feel like I'm
new at this, so I really, you know, pay attention
and watch and observe him and on and off camera,
how he conducts himself is really incredible to witness and
to learn from. I mean, it's just, you know, one
laugh after another. I think it's really funny. I think
(39:51):
that people are gonna love all different parts of it.
There's definitely an audience for this. It's a genre but silly,
you know, busting out laughing. It's really wild and people
are gonna, hopefully, they're going to love it. I'm a
big supporter of going to the theater. I love going
(40:12):
to the theater, and Eddie movie is seen best on
a big screen and with all the stunts and the wild,
the craziness everything going on. And there's a lot of stuff.
There's layers, like if you see it once, you see it,
the next time you might see something different. There's a
lot of references and funny things in the background, and
so I think it's much better at big screen and
(40:33):
it's definitely one of those movies you need to have,
like you know, candy and popcorn and friends.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
And.
Speaker 8 (40:42):
You'll get a kick out of it much better in
a theater.
Speaker 9 (40:45):
Hello, I'm William Mason. I played detective of Frank Drebin
in the film Naked Gune. Frank Dreben. He's a very
commissa please inspiret there, but he's bumbling. He's not stupid,
(41:06):
but he's he has a naivety to him, finds themselves
in situations and kind of does the wrong thing but
with the right attitude, and it lands him and lots
of precarious situations that he has to hopefully in a
(41:29):
funny way, get out of, find a way out of.
You know, why did I want to be part of
this comedy? Well, Seth MacFarlane, who is an old pal,
called me up a couple of years ago and dangled
the idea of me doing this reboot of this character,
(41:49):
and I said it was interested. It's as simple as
that Akiva was. It was terrific to work with. He's
from the world of Saturday Night Live, uh and which
is a very funny show. He's very smart. He's a
comedy nerd. I would say, I mean that in the
(42:12):
best possible way. Very good writer, and this genre is
ken in you for me, certainly feature film comedy genre.
So I relied on him a lot. He was terrific
to work with. Our film has I would say, the
same tone as the originals, hopefully a lot of giggles
(42:37):
for the audience, some funny stuff, situations that the characters
find themselves in. Yeah, a lot of giggles. Do I
think this honors the originals? I yes, I think it does.
It certainly does not insult them, and it is called
(42:59):
Naked Gun. Pamela Anderson plays the fa fatale, I guess
is the best way to describe her character, who's very beautiful,
sexy and funny, and Pamela is all that and more.
Any scene with Pamela Anderson was was terrific and I
(43:21):
always looked forward to to working with her. I think
we got on well. She's certainly become a new pal Pamela.
She's terrific to work with. No big ego, no airs
and graces. We had We had a few laughs on set. Yeah,
Beth and myself, we Yeah, we we we transolve the
(43:50):
crime big crime in the film together, not always. We're
butting heads occasionally, but but that's part of the fun.
Paulhuser plays my sidekick Ed in the film. I hadn't
met Paul before. I've seen him in a couple of films.
(44:10):
He's very very good, very very talented, and hilariously funny.
I think it's important we as human beings, as groups
sit together and see entertainment ie movies, cinema in theaters.
It's a thrilling experience. It is, especially when it's a comedy,
(44:33):
to sit together with a bunch of strangers and laugh
the same stuff, giggle of the same stuff. I think
it's very important for our souls. We will fans like
about this film. I think I hope they will love it.
As I say, give audiences a few giggles, maybe a
couple of belly laughs.
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