Akiva Schaffer was keen to craft a strong story for The Naked Gun
The Naked Gun director Akiva Schaffer wanted to focus on both plot and comedy during the making of the movie.
Akiva Schaffer wanted The Naked Gun to have a strong story.
The 47-year-old filmmaker has helmed the comedy reboot that stars Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson but explained that he didn't want laughs to come at the expense of the plot.
Asked how he and the crew developed the flick, Akiva told Collider: "That's a very good question. Because now it's been a couple of years since we started, we're iterating so fast and writing a whole first act that gets thrown away, and then the best jokes make their way into new jokes.
"When we were trying to figure it out, I would say we were operating on two tracks at once. One was just brainstorming jokes, set pieces that you don't even know how they'll fit in, but just identifying tropes.
"It was just going, 'Oh, when somebody breaks their cell phone because it's a burner, and now they can't get traced', that's an area where we could do."
The Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers director added: "So, there's that pile that's just like, 'God, it'd be so good to get any of that into this movie.'
"And then there's the other thing, which is just trying to find the story that will be the best version to make sure it can work and that it can stay interesting and that the jokes will work.
"I mean, we wrote thousands of jokes that didn't make it in, and we broke different stories that weren't the story ultimately."
Schaffer is hopeful of making a sequel to The Naked Gun – which serves as a legacy sequel to the comedy flicks that starred the late Leslie Nielsen – and hopes that people go to the cinema and watch the film.
Asked if he is interested in a sequel, he said: "I am, but I also don't want to jinx it with that kind of talk. I've been burned every time, almost, before. But yeah, everything's on the table. We'll see if people will go see it. I have no clue.
"You really think of a movie like this, just speaking of Happy Gilmore 2 (which was released on Netflix), another legacy sequel comedy, one week ago, you expect it to come to your house. So, I don't blame anybody for expecting that.
"But as someone like yourself who's at a theatre with people seeing it, it does make you really remember and go, 'Oh my god, this is fun to be in here.'
"But if you haven't done that recently, then you have kind of forgotten, and kind of go, 'Eh, it's fine. I'll wait.' So, I wouldn't blame anybody, but I do hope people show up."
