News

We lost some entertainment giants in 2024.

Among the big-screen legends who died during the past 12 months were Donald Sutherland, James Earl Jones, Maggie Smith, Carl Weathers, Shelley Duvall, Dabney Coleman, Teri Garr, Louis Gossett Jr., Anouk Aimée, Marisa Paredes and Gena Rowlands.

Related: Saying Goodbye: A Video Tribute To The Hollywood And Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2024

The TV world mourns the likes of Bob Newhart, John Amos, Phil Donahue, Linda Lavin, David Soul, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Martin Mull, Shannen Doherty, Michael Cole, Richard Lewis, Richard Simmons, James B. Sikking, Peter Marshall and Joe Flaherty.

Filmmakers and producers who left us include Norman Jewison, Roger Corman, Al Ruddy, Jon Landau, Lynda Obst, Jim Abrahams, Charles Shyer, Irv Wilson and Paolo Taviani.

The industry also paid tribute to such top executives as Charles Dolan, Paula Weinstein, Jamie Kellner, Richard Parsons, Gerald Levin and Paul Fox.

Broadway’s lights were a...

Twelve years have gone by since the release of a new entry in the Scary Movie horror parody series – but the franchise isn’t going to remain dormant for much longer. Last April, it was announced that the Miramax label at Paramount, which is now operating under new boss Jonathan Glickman, had given the greenlight to a new Scary Movie sequel, with the plan being to get the film into theatres sometime in 2025. Now we know exactly when the new movie is going to be released… but it’s not going to be this year. Scary Movie 6 is scheduled to reach theatres on June 12, 2026. As of right now, we know this is going to put it in direct competition with the next movie from the Daniels, the directing duo behind Best Picture Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The Scary Movie series is being revived with the help...

Charlie Sheen might have suffered more than a few career setbacks and caused innumerable controversies, but that does not deny the fact that he is a prolific actor. Apart from his work in Two and a Half Men, the actor has given audiences some of the best blockbusters in his career.

Charlie Sheen in Two and a Half Men | Credit: CBS

One of these is a tongue-in-cheek parody film of Tom Cruise’s Top Gun, called Hot Shots! that ended up becoming a cultural phenomenon in its own right. Furthermore, the film also scored remarkably well at the box office, allowing Sheen to create a career record.

Top Gun parody that helped Charlie Sheen show his box office might Hot Shots! (1991) | Credit: 20th Century Studios

Charlie Sheen, in his remarkable career, has appeared in several movies and TV shows. However, his 1991 Top Gun parody film, Hot Shots! took Hollywood by storm.

Gwen Van Dam, whose 70-year career as a character actress for film, television and the stage included turns in True Confessions, Halloween, Coming Home, Stir Crazy and The Trip to Bountiful, has died. She was 96.

Van Dam, who compiled about 140 acting credits on IMDb, died Dec. 19 at her home in West Los Angeles after a recurrence of cancer, her son, Dirk Smillie, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Van Dam remained a busy actress until the end, appearing on the first five episodes of Prime Video’s Homecoming in 2018, on Netflix’s Grace and Frankie in 2019 and on two installments of Hulu’s Interior Chinatown last year. She recently finished a play, too.

Her TV résumé included The Brady Bunch, Mannix, Maude, House Calls, Days of Our Lives, Moonlighting, 227, Knots Landing, Star Trek: Generations, ER, Gilmore Girls, Charmed, New Girl, Criminal Minds, Angie Tribeca and Modern Family.

Meanwhile, she spent the...

The 1991 spoof Hot Shots! found itself to a small degree mirroring the front pages of the newspapers – and 20th Century Fox was worried.

Save for a few sporadic examples – the first Scary Movie, for instance, and more recently The Goes Wrong Show on the BBC – it feels like the era of the successful screen spoof came to a juddering halt in the 1990s. In 1993, we had the second of two Hot Shots! films, and in 1994 the Naked Gun trilogy came to an end. After those? It was slim pickings.

There were further attempts to breathe fresh life into the spoof – Spy Hard, Jane Austen’s Mafia!, Wrongfully Accused – but nothing that could live up to some of the movies we got in the 80s and early 90s.

In 1991 in particular, the spoof was a box office draw. This was the year when many big budget Hollywood productions came in well below box office expectations.

Image Source: Amazon While most of the eulogies for the late Jim Abrahams have rightfully centered around Airplane!, the movie that catapulted him and the Zucker brothers into the public consciousness, it would be negligent to ignore some of the other films he made. Just as Airplane! skewered disaster movies, Hot Shots took aim at the success of Top Gun and other iconic ’80s films. Continuing with his practice of casting against type, Charlie Sheen — who was primarily known for his dramatic roles at that point — was brought in as the film’s lead. When the film was originally released, Sheen talked to us about Abrahams gave him the confidence to feel like he could be an on-screen comedian (a skill that would later serve him well on Two and a Half Men). (Click on the media bar below to hear Charlie Sheen.) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Charlie...

William Shatner kicked off his career as a promising young actor in the company of the prestigious Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario. But when, despite strong notices for his performances, he failed to springboard to stardom like his Canadian colleague Christopher Plummer, Shatner lowered his sights and embraced the philosophy of a working actor. This isn't a knock. He shined in his "The Twilight Zone" episodes, and was superb as a racist interloper who stokes violence against the Black residents of a small town in Roger Corman's "The Intruder." However, he also took so many guest roles in television that he ran the risk of driving down his value by dint of his ubiquity.

Three seasons and several great episodes of "Star Trek" fixed that for Shatner, but throughout the 1970s he become closely associated with a kind of laughably serious, easily parodied manneredness. The ne plus ultra of...

Earlier this year, Paramount and Miramax announced that they are reviving the Scary Movie horror parody series to bring a Scary Movie 6 to theatres sometime in 2025, with the Wayans Brothers back in creative control – and that announcement has inspired us to go back and revisit the earlier entries in the franchise. Now we’re up to the 2006 sequel Scary Movie 4, and you can hear all about it in the video embedded above.

Directed by David Zucker from a screenplay by Craig Mazin, Jim Abrahams, and Pat Proft, Scary Movie 4 has the following synopsis: Dim-witted Cindy Campbell and her sex-crazed friend, Brenda, team up with cute-but-clueless Tom Ryan to save the world from a hostile alien invasion, with hints of War of the Worlds, Saw II, Million Dollar Baby and The Village.

The cast includes Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Craig Bierko, Leslie Nielsen, Bill Pullman, Anthony Anderson, Kevin Hart,...

As 2024 starts to close out, Amazon Prime Video is bringing even more cinematic goodies to its slate for November.

TheWrap is here to give a list of the best of the best of what’s to come on the streamer and what’s already added that you can enjoy. From heart-warming dramas to fresh, animated flicks that will take you on an adventure and more, we’ve got it all here for you.

Check out the best new movies streaming on Prime Video this month below.

“Gladiator” (Universal Pictures) “Gladiator” (2000)

We had to add “Gladiator” to the list with its sequel being in theaters and all. So if you need to watch it before heading to the movies, check it out on Prime Video. In Ridley Scott’s action-adventure “Gladiator,” Maximus (Russell Crowe) is a former general who’s been enslaved and forced to fight for his life as a common gladiator.

Following the death of Jim Abrahams, there’s been a lot of chatter online about a movie he co-wrote: The Naked Gun. Fans have been sharing their favorite scenes on social media, such as the prolonged bribery sequence featuring Lt. Frank Drebin and a shady dockworker.

But wouldn’t these scenes be more fun if you got to control Frank Drebin yourself?

Apparently we came surprisingly close to getting a Naked Gun tie-in video game. As reported by retro gaming site Time Extension, British game developer Perfect Entertainment obtained the rights to The Naked Gun franchise decades ago, and were planning on releasing a game based on the classic comedy in late 1997.

The company’s co-founder, Gregg Barnett, recently revealed that the game would have been a “2D point-and-click adventure” with a new storyline that incorporated the mind-control technology used by the villainous Vincent Ludwig to try and bump off...

Writer and director who was part of the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team behind the classic film spoofs Airplane! and The Naked Gun

The 1980 disaster movie spoof Airplane! was a flyaway success. Made for $3.5m, it grossed over $170m and forged a new style of film comedy. It was written and directed by the trio known as Zaz: the brothers Jerry and David Zucker, and their childhood friend Jim Abrahams, who has died aged 80 of leukaemia.

There had been movie send-ups before, notably from Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and the Monty Python team. One of the innovations of Airplane!, though, was to multiply the gags without lingering on them. The audience had to be quick to keep up: this was one instance where the phrase “laugh-a-minute” represented a serious understatement.

This article first appeared into the September 2018 issue of Empire.

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Thirty years after unleashing defective detective Frank Drebin onto the streets of LA, the men behind The Naked Gun talk us through its most iconic moments.

“I’ve finally found someone I can love. A good clean love, without utensils.”

So spoke Lieutenant Frank Drebin in the closing moments of The Naked Gun, romancing his girlfriend mere seconds after his would-be assassin is trampled to death by a marching band. It’s been 30 years since Leslie Nielsen’s Drebin crashed into cinemas, getting everything wrong yet somehow still solving the case. Today, Drebin’s co-creators David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker (aka Zaz), brought together by Empire for an anniversary chinwag, are in fine fettle — there’s no mistaking Drebin’s heritage. “Tell me if I’m wrong,” says Empire, about to pose a question. “You’re wrong!

Writer-director was involved with a string of hits, including Airplane!, Hot Shots! and The Naked Gun. Here are some of the most famous scenes

Jim Abrahams, the writer-director involved with the hit comedies Airplane! and The Naked Gun, has died at the age of 80.

Here we take a look at the funniest moments from his most popular film and TV comedies.

The writer and director, who died this week, helped to define what big screen spoofs would look like in the decades after

Jim Abrahams, co-creator of Airplane! and The Naked Gun, dies aged 80

Very few people can honestly claim to have changed the direction of comedy, but Jim Abrahams – who died this week – is one of them. Thanks to the procession of spoof movies he made, both alone and with his fellow writer-directors David and Jerry Zucker, Abrahams helped to carve out a brand new genre of comedy, equal parts straight-faced and scattergun.

The most enduring Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (Zaz) film remains Airplane! After leveraging the show they honed at University of Wisconsin–Madison into the entertaining if directionless sketch film The Kentucky Fried Movie, the trio came across the 1957 aviation thriller Zero Hour! on television. They were so taken by the silly plot and wooden acting that they decided to parody the whole thing,...

It is with great sadness that we bring you the news Jim Abrahams, the legendary writer-director who — alongside brothers Jerry and David Zucker — gave us such comedy greats as Airplane!, The Naked Gun, and Police Squad, has died at the age of 80. His son Joseph confirmed the news to THR, telling the outlet that his father passed away of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica earlier today.

James S. Abrahams was born in Shorewood, Wisconsin on 10 May, 1944. The son of educational researcher Louise M. Abrahams and lawyer Norman S. Abrahams, it would be fair to say that young Jim Abrahams didn't develop his love of comedy from studying his folks' vocations. Rather, it was the childhood friendship he formed with the Zucker brothers — sons of his father's business colleague, and classmates at Shorewood High School and then the University of Wisconsin in Madison — that helped Abrahams Jr. find his funny bone.

Jim Abrahams, one of the writers and directors behind some of the greatest and most quotable spoof and slapstick comedies of the 20th century — including Airplane!, The Naked Gun, and Hot Shots! — died Tuesday, Nov. 26, Variety reports. He was 80.

Abrahams’ son, Joseph, confirmed his death. No cause of death was given.

Abrahams spent the bulk of his career working alongside his two childhood friends, brothers David and Jerry Zucker. Jerry Zucker, in a statement shared with Rolling Stone, called Abrahams “our third brother.”

He continued: “He had a rebellious streak that drove him.

Jim Abrahams, the comedy legend who brought some of the most beloved movie quotes of all time into the zeitgeist as the co-director of “Airplane” and co-writer of “The Naked Gun,” has died of natural causes at the age of 80. The news was first broken by The Hollywood Reporter.

Born in Wisconsin in 1944, Abrahams is best known for his career-spanning collaboration with his childhood friends David and Jerry Zucker. Working under the moniker Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, the three men developed a distinct brand of unapologetically goofy, gag-a-minute comedy that often spoofed other popular forms of media.

The trio broke through in 1977 when they co-wrote “The Kentucky Fried Movie,” a star-studded collection of sketches that lampooned many of the era’s lowbrow film genres, including Kung-fu movies and softcore porn. Directed by Max Landis, the film proved to be the perfect introduction to the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker sense of humor, in which landing the perfect...

The world would have been a far less funny place without Jim Abrahams, who passed away today at the age of 80.

Abrahams is likely best remembered for his iconic collaborations with brothers David and Jerry Zucker. The trio’s live “Kentucky Fried Theater” shows eventually paved the way for their first film as screenwriters: The Kentucky Fried Movie. As directors, the Zaz comedy team that gave us all-time classics like Airplane! and Top Secret!, and they later penned the David Zucker-directed The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

When it came to comedies with exclamation points in the titles, they really couldn't be beat.

Speaking of emphatic punctuation, Abrahams continued the absurd, rapid-fire comedic style he pioneered with the Zuckers in his solo directorial effort Hot Shots!, which was quickly followed by Hot Shots! Part Deux.

While the first movie began as a parody of Top Gun,...

Jim Abrahams, part of the writing-directing-producing team behind such comedy touchstones as Airplane!, the Naked Gun films, and Police Squad!, died Tuesday at his Santa Monica home. He was 80.

His son, Joseph Abrahams, confirmed the news to our sister site The Hollywood Reporter.

Along with brothers David and Jerry Zucker, Abrahams also was behind laugh-inducing — and often intentionally groan-inducing — comedy films including Top Secret! and the Top Gun spoofs Hot Shots! and Hot Shots! Part Deux. Students of the Mel Brooks School of Anything for a Laugh, the trio paired absurd situations with deadpan lines and fueled Leslie Nielsen’s unlikely rise to leading man after 30 years in the business.

The trio got their big-screen start writing The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), a series of decidedly un-pc vignettes directed by John Landis that ranged from silly to uproarious to “what the hell?!” and back. Sample: A TV news anchor deadpans from...

Jim Abrahams, a film director and writer behind hit slapstick comedies like “Airplane!,” “Hot Shots!,” the “Naked Gun” series and more, died Tuesday, his son Joseph confirmed to Variety. He was 80.

With his childhood friends Jerry and David Zucker, Abrahams formed the filmmaking trio, called Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker, and popularized the spoof genre of the 1980s.

“Jim Abrahams redefined the boundaries of humor through groundbreaking works like ‘Airplane!’ and ‘The Naked Gun’ series. Together with Jerry and David Zucker, he transformed satire into an art form, inspiring generations of comedians and filmmakers and leaving an indelible mark on the world of comedy,” said the National Comedy Center executive director Journey Gunderson in a statement.

With the Zucker brothers, Abrahams founded the The Kentucky Fried Theater while they all attended college together at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1971. That led to them making their film debut with the indie sketch...

Famed comedy writer and director, who was also involved in Ruthless People and Hot Shots!, died of natural causes

Jim Abrahams, the writer-director involved with hit comedies Airplane! and The Naked Gun, has died at the age of 80.

According to his son Joseph, who confirmed the news to the Hollywood Reporter, he died of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica.

Jim Abrahams, writer-director of “Airplane!,” “Police Squad!” and the third leg of the Zucker Brothers trio that brought zany/deadpan comedy to screens and infinite dialogue quotes among the millions of friends who saw them, has died. He was 80.

Abrahams died Tuesday at his Santa Monica home of natural causes, THR reported Tuesday, according to his son Joseph.

With the brothers Jerry and David Zucker, his childhood friends from Wisconsin, Abrahams wrote the sketch-comedy “Kentucky Fried Movie” in 1977, directed by John Landis. The cult hit was also a modest box-office success with over $7 million, and the three were off to the races.

With Landis off to direct “Animal House,” Abrahams and the Zuckers, or Zaz, took director duties on “Airplane!,” which – despite, but also because of, its relentlessly silly and juvenile gags – still stands among the most revered comedic films of any era.

The most quotable comedy of all time...

One of the major contributors to the comedy film world, Jim Abrahams, has reportedly passed away at the age of 80. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that his son, Joseph, confirmed that Abrahams died of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica. The renowned writer/director was best known as part of the trio Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, which also consisted of David and Jerry Zucker. All three would produce the immensely beloved comedy Airplane! along with The Naked Gun movies.

The trio would break through by writing the sketch film The Kentucky Fried Movie, which was helmed by John Landis. The Zaz team would also write and direct the spy film parody Top Secret!, which starred Val Kilmer in his debut film role, as well as the Bette Midler and Danny DeVito comedy Ruthless People. The team would eventually go their separate ways, but Abrahams would keep directing with his own comedies,...

Jim Abrahams, the writer-director who with brothers Jerry and David Zucker turned the comedy genre on its ear with such zany efforts as Airplane!, Police Squad! and The Naked Gun films, died Tuesday. He was 80.

Abrahams died of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica, his son Joseph told The Hollywood Reporter.

The trio made their first mainstream impression by writing the sketch-filled Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), directed by John Landis in his prelude to Animal House, and they also combined for Top Secret! (1984), starring a young Val Kilmer, and Ruthless People (1986), featuring Bette Midler and Danny DeVito.

Without his childhood buddies from Wisconsin, Abrahams directed Big Business (1988), starring Midler and Lily Tomlin, and co-wrote and helmed Hot Shots! (1991) and its 1993 sequel, both starring Charlie Sheen.

Joke-filled and laden with sight gags and puns, the humor of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker, or Zaz as they came to be known, was fast,...

Jim Abrahams, who co-wrote and co-directed Airplane and a number of other comedy movies with Jerry and David Zucker, has died. Abrahams' son confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the filmmaker died of natural causes in his Santa Monica home on Tuesday. He was 80 years old.

Abrahams was born in...

Eleven years have gone by since the release of a new entry in the Scary Movie horror parody series – but the franchise isn’t going to remain dormant for much longer. Back in April, it was announced that the Miramax label at Paramount, which is now operating under new boss Jonathan Glickman, had given the greenlight to a new Scary Movie sequel, with the plan being to get the film into theatres sometime in 2025. We recently learned that the series is being revived with the help of the people who got it started in the first place: the Wayans Brothers – and now Regina Hall, who played the character Brenda Meeks in the first four movies, has said she thinks it would be fun to come back and work on the new sequel with the Wayans.

Directed by In Living Color creator Keenen Ivory Wayans from a screenplay written by a bunch of people,...

Eleven years have gone by since the release of a new entry in the Scary Movie horror parody series – but the franchise isn’t going to remain dormant for much longer, and it’s being revived with the help of the people who got it started in the first place: the Wayans Brothers! Back in April, it was announced that the Miramax label at Paramount, which is now operating under new boss Jonathan Glickman, had given the greenlight to a new Scary Movie sequel, with the plan being to get the film into theatres sometime in 2025. That announcement didn’t include any mention of writers or a director – but now Deadline has revealed that Scary Movie 6 marks the return of the Wayans Brothers to the franchise. They haven’t been involved with the Scary Movie series since the second movie.

Scary Movie was developed by Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans,...

It is exceedingly rare in today's IP-dominated movie marketplace to see an original film spawn a long-running franchise. Granted, these motion pictures aren't always wholly original. But while they tend to be derivative of narrative formulas that have worked in the past, they are at least written from scratch with no significant assistance from a novel or a comic book or a video game or, nowadays, the origin story of a popular brand.

So, kudos to Gregory Widen and Paul Maslansky for possessing the creative chutzpah to launch two very successful franchises in, respectively, "Highlander" and "Police Academy." The former gave fans four feature installments over a 14-year-span, while the latter rattled off six entries once a year between 1984 and 1989 (and a late-in-the-day seventh with much of the same cast in 1994).

"Police Academy" was especially zeitgeisty, trafficking in the zany spoof gags made popular by the Zaz team of David Zucker,...

Airplane!, The Naked Gun and Top Secret are coming together for the Zaz Collection, a brand new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray boxset.

Paramount Pictures has already released the first The Naked Gun on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format. Now we have the confirmed that both Airplane! and the mighty, mighty Top Secret! are also landing on 4K disc later this year.

It’s all part of a new three film set, Zaz: The Collection. The Zaz being David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, the creative force behind the movies. The trio directed two of them together, with David Zucker taking on sole duties for The Naked Gun.

Zaz: The Collection is coming our way from Paramount Pictures, and has been listed for release in the UK on 25th November 2024. You can find the listing for the release, and further details, here.

See also: Zucker Abrahams Zucker, and why they went their separate ways.

The Criterion Channel’s at its best when October rolls around, consistently engaging in the strongest horror line-ups of any streamer. 2024 will bring more than a few iterations of their spooky programming: “Horror F/X” highlights the best effects-based scares through the likes of Romero, Cronenberg, Lynch, Tobe Hooper, James Whale; “Witches” does what it says on the tin (and inside the tin is the underrated Italian anthology film featuring Clint Eastwood cuckolded by Batman); “Japanese Horror” runs the gamut of classics; a Stephen King series puts John Carpenter and The Lawnmower Man on equal playing ground; October’s Criterion Editions are Rosemary’s Baby, Night of the Hunter, Häxan; a made-for-tv duo includes Carpenter’s underrated Someone’s Watching Me!; meanwhile, The Wailing and The Babadook stream alongside a collection of Cronenberg and Stephanie Rothman titles.

Otherwise, Winona Ryder and Raúl Juliá are given retrospectives, as are filmmakers Arthur J. Bressan Jr. and Lionel Rogosin.

Even 44 years after its release, Airplane! is still considered one of the funniest movies ever made, having entertained generations of fans, and forever ruined any earnest use of the word “surely” in a sentence.

A big reason why Airplane! works so well is its casting. While Paramount wanted to cast the biggest comedy stars of the day, floating names like Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, directors Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker instead opted to hire more dramatic actors in the lead roles, such as Lloyd Bridges and Leslie Nielsen. Keep in mind, this was back when Leslie Nielsen was still considered a dramatic actor.

Enlisting serious actors to play every single absurd scene completely straight is what made the movie hilarious. But casting non-comedians in a comedy did present certain challenges. For example, in order to get the right performance out of Robert Stack, of TV’s The Untouchables fame,...

This August, Paramount+ is bringing you a lot of entertainment with the highly anticipated streaming release of the biographical film Bob Marley: One Love and a very weird but humorous and heartfelt film Sasquatch Sunset, which follows the daily lives of a Sasquatch family. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Paramount+ this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 10 best films that are coming to Paramount+ in August 2024 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Airplane! (August 1)

Airplane! is a disaster absurdist comedy film written and directed by Jim Abrahams, David, and Jerry Zucker. Based on the 1957 drama film Zero Hour! by Arthur Hailey, Hall Bartlett, and John Champion, the 1980 film follows Ted Striker, a former pilot with a fear of flying as he finds himself in the impossible situation of landing a...

George Lazenby played James Bond a single time before walking away from the part forever. He explained why on earth he threw away the opportunity to play 007 again and again. Interestingly, he didn’t feel like he was losing money when he made that fateful decision.

George Lazenby said the hippy scene convinced him to reject James Bond

Sean Connery played Bond seven times, Roger Moore did the same, and Daniel Craig played him five times. Lazenby ditched the role after a single outing: the critically acclaimed On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The Guardian reports Lazenby turned down a million dollars to play the fictional spy another six times.

In 2017, Lazenby said the cultural atmosphere of the 1960s explained his decision. “I had advice that James Bond was over anyway,” he said. “It was Sean Connery’s gig and, being in the ’60s, it was love, not war. You know,...

Certain parody movies have managed to surpass their original inspirations in terms of popularity, cultural impact, and enduring appeal. Airplane! is now much more iconic than Zero Hour! Singin' in the Rain is so great that a lot of people don't realize most of its songs were taken from other (lesser-known) movies.

From Airplane! to Blazing Saddles to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, some parodies are so great and iconic that they outshine the movies they originally set out to spoof. Usually, a parody movie only gets made because the film its targeting is a cultural staple. As hilarious as Spaceballs is, it was never going to outdo the Star Wars saga. But some parodies go for more obscure targets; not a lot of people know that Airplane! is practically a shot-for-shot remake of a ridiculous disaster movie called Zero Hour!, or that The Naked Gun borrows its premise from Telefon.

Legendary actor Donald Sutherland just passed away at the age of 88. Younger fans probably know him best for playing the villainous President Snow in the Hunger Games movies, or perhaps for voicing Hollis Hurlbut in that one episode of The Simpsons.

Older audiences, on the other hand, grew up watching Sutherland in classic movies like M*A*S*H, Don’t Look Now and The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Although his greatest work, hands down, was this vintage Canadian tourism commercial in which he tells a joke about a salmon fisherman on his wedding day.

Sutherland also starred in one of the most profitable movie comedies of all-time: National Lampoon’s Animal House.

Sutherland played the highly-inappropriate Professor Jennings (who somehow still isn’t the most questionable element of the movie). This may have seemed like an odd role for the actor at the time, but Sutherland only took the gig...

Donald Sutherland passed away Thursday at the age of 88, an actor so respected for his dramatic acting that he won an honorary Oscar in 2017. He’ll be remembered for Klute, Ordinary People, Don’t Look Now and even The Hunger Games, but don’t forget that Sutherland played key roles in three of the most influential comedies ever.

1 M*A*S*H

Take a seat, Alan Alda — Sutherland was the original Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman’s epic satire. Sutherland didn’t get along with the director, but who cares? It was Altman’s first hit-it-out-the-park classic, a movie that thumbed its nose at the Vietnam War by pretending to be about the Korean War. “Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland are two genuinely funny actors,” wrote Roger Ebert in his four-star review. “They don’t have to make themselves ridiculous to get a laugh. They’re funny because their humor comes so directly from their personalities.

Donald Sutherland, the beloved actor who starred in scores of films from The Dirty Dozen, Mash and Klute to Animal House and Ordinary People to Pride & Prejudice and The Hunger Games franchise and won an Emmy for Citizen X, died Thursday in Miami after a long illness. He was 88.

The 2017 Honorary Oscar recipient also is the father of Emmy-winning 24 and Designated Survivor actor Kiefer Sutherland and veteran CAA Media Finance exec Roeg Sutherland. CAA confirmed the news to Deadline.

Related: Remembering Donald Sutherland: A Career In Photos

In some of his most well-known roles, he perfected a laconic, wry and dead-serious delivery. Such was the case for characters including the cool-headed amateur murder investigator John Klute, opposite Jane Fonda’s terrified and erratic call girl Bree Daniels in Klute; as Hawkeye Pierce in the film Mash, where he played opposite Elliott Gould’s cut-up Trapper John; and in Nicolas Roeg...

Exclusive: Paramount has rounded out the cast for its untitled Naked Gun reboot with four additions: Liza Koshy (Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts), current WWE Undisputed Champion Cody Rhodes, Cch Pounder (Rustin) and Busta Rhymes.

No word on the roles they’re playing, but we’re told Rhodes will only be making a cameo. As previously announced, Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Kevin Durand and Danny Huston will also star. Neeson plays Detective Frank Drebin, with Hauser as his partner Ed. Roles for Anderson and Huston haven’t yet emerged, though it’s understood that Durand will be playing the film’s villain.

Akiva Schaffer is directing and exec producing the comedy, slated for release on July 18, 2025. Dan Gregor and Doug Mand wrote the draft script along with Schaffer. Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins are producing via Fuzzy Door, with Daniel M. Stillman also serving as EP.

Known...

Exclusive: Danny Huston (The Dead Don’t Hurt) has signed on to star alongside Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser and Kevin Durand in the untitled Naked Gun reboot from Paramount Pictures.

Details as to the film’s plot, as well as Huston’s role in it, are under wraps. But Neeson will play Detective Frank Drebin, as previously announced, with Hauser as his partner Ed. It’s not yet clear who Anderson will be playing, though it’s understood that Durand will be taking on one of the film’s villain roles.

Akiva Schaffer is directing and exec producing the comedy, slated for release on July 18, 2025. Dan Gregor and Doug Mand wrote the draft script along with Schaffer. Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins are producing via Fuzzy Door, with Daniel M. Stillman also serving as EP.

Known for their absurd scenarios and slapstick humor, past Naked Gun films centered on the misadventures of Drebin,...

After donning ape fur for his upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Kevin Durand is now getting Naked.

The actor, who is also currently on screens with horror movie Abigail, has joined Liam Neeson in Paramount Pictures’ untitled remake of Naked Gun, based on the crime spoof comedies that were released in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Pamela Anderson and Paul Walter Hauser are also on the call sheet for the feature that will begin shooting later this month.

Akiva Schaffer is directing the comedy, which has a script by Dan Gregor, Doug Mand and Schaffer. The trio were behind the popular and Emmy-winning Disney+ movie Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers.

The original movie, written and directed by Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker and based on their television series Police Squad! that lasted only six episodes, spoofed the tropes of police shows and films that...

It's a busy old time for Paul Walter Hauser – with good reason, since he's been putting in excellent, memorable and award-winning performances in a variety of films and shows. He's now attached to another big title, joining Liam Neeson in the cast of Paramount's new spin on The Naked Gun.

The 1988 original saw David Zucker, brother Jerry, Jim Abrahams and co-writer Pat Proft turn their short-lived comedy series Police Squad! into a movie. It was an instant comedy hit, Leslie Nielsen's iconic central performance cementing his transformation from dramatic actor to comedy legend as Detective Frank Drebin.

Two sequels followed to diminishing returns (though there are still good gags to be enjoyed in both), but we started to hear rumours of a remake in development years ago. That went through a few versions — Ed Helms was attached to star for while — and more recently, Seth MacFarlane has been involved,...

Paul Walter Hauser is ready to fight crime alongside Liam Neeson in the reboot of the Naked Gun franchise.

Hauser is set to play Captain Ed in director Akiva Schaffer’s untitled new Naked Gun film that Paramount Pictures plans to release July 18, 2025. George Kennedy previously played the role in the original film trilogy that kicked off with the 1988 comedy The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

Dan Gregor and Doug Mand penned the new movie’s script with Schaffer. The two scribes previously wrote the director’s Emmy-winning Disney+ feature Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers. Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins of Fuzzy Door produce the project that is based on the Naked Gun film franchise and the television series Police Squad! from Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker. Daniel M. Stillman serves as executive producer.

Hauser joins the cast that includes Neeson and Pamela Anderson. While plot details are under wraps,...

Exclusive: Paul Walter Hauser’s hot streak continues. After seeing New Line lock up rights to the authorized Chris Farley biopic in which he’ll star for director Josh Gad, the actor has signed on to the untitled Naked Gun reboot from Paramount Pictures.

Hauser joins an ensemble that also includes Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, as previously announced. He’ll take on the role of Ed, Frank Drebin’s partner, which was inhabited in prior Naked Gun films by George Kennedy, and in the preceding series Police Squad! by Alan North.

Akiva Schaffer is directing and exec producing the comedy, slated for release in theaters on July 18, 2025. Dan Gregor and Doug Mand wrote the draft script along with Schaffer, with whom they partnered on the Emmy-winning film Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers. Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins are producing via Fuzzy Door, with Daniel M. Stillman also serving as EP.

When it was announced that Liam Neeson would be playing the lead in a reboot of The Naked Gun, the sound of people collectively going “Whaaaa??” was heard across every precinct. Liam Neeson? The guy who reinvented his career by pretty much only taking on action movies when he was in his mid-50s? Heck, even Neeson himself was a little nervous about whether he could handle such rapid-fire comedy. Now, original Naked Gun director and co-creator David Zucker is weighing in, casting his own skepticism on the project.

Speaking with TMZ, David Zucker said of the upcoming Naked Gun entry – the first in three decades – “We were not excited about having the franchise given to other people. At the time, I couldn’t believe it because we thought we had a great script, and they loved the script from what we heard. I don’t have any control over it.

The best things come in threes, especially stories. In Western nations, we like a three-act structure in which we set a status quo, watch our heroes fall, and then see them return to greatness. Some of these stories cannot be held within a single movie. For those epics, those monumental narratives, the movie trilogy was born. Trilogies represent some of the best that cinema has to offer, movies that changed the culture and the art form. The trilogy might vary in quality from film to film, but together these three films tell a story that cannot be ignored.

Before we get too far, let’s lay out our criteria. The trilogies chosen here are those intended to be a trilogy, either from the outset or by the end of the third film. Thus we’re including things such as the Toy Story and Indiana Jones trilogies, even though those continued on with further entries.

‘Baywatch’ alumni Pamela Anderson has joined Liam Neeson in the forthcoming reboot of ‘Naked Gun’.

The movie is based on the ‘Naked Gun’ movie franchise which starred Leslie Nielsen as Lt. Frank Drebin. The original franchise was created by the creators of Paramount’s ‘Airplane!’, namely Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker. The Naked Gun trilogy was released during the early 1990s and was a big hit at the domestic box office, grossing over $216 million. Similar to Airplane!, the Naked Gun film series was famous for its outrageous parody, ridiculous set-ups, and on-screen sight gags.

Also in news – Pierce Brosnan set for Prince Naseem boxing biopic ‘Giant’

Akiva Schaffer is directing and executive producing. Dan Gregor and Doug Mand wrote the draft script along with Schaffer for the project. Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins are producing via their company Fuzzy Door. Daniel M. Stillman is EP.

Anderson has previously...

When 1980’s Airplane! proved to be a massive hit, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of the year – up there with The Empire Strikes Back and Best Picture winner Kramer vs. Kramer – it was inevitable that it would get a sequel. But how often are comedy sequels good anyway? When have they ever really recaptured the magic and the laughter of the original? Well, Airplane II: The Sequel gave it a go…by basically being the same movie. Except this time around, Zaz wisely opted out, leaving the production without the strong leaders who reinvented the spoof genre. Instead, they got the guy who wrote Grease 2, one of the most notoriously awful sequels ever! So, strap in – no, not to an airplane but a space shuttle – as we find out: Wtf Happened to This Movie?!…The Sequel!

1980’s Airplane! did incredibly well upon release, making just under $85 million on a $3.5 million budget,...

Pamela Anderson is dressing up for Naked Gun.

The actor has signed on to star opposite Liam Neeson in Paramount Pictures’ untitled remake of Naked Gun, based on the crime spoof comedies that were released in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Akiva Schaffer is directing the comedy, which has a script by Dan Gregor, Doug Mand and Schaffer. The trio were behind the popular and Emmy-winning Disney+ movie Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers.

The original movie, written and directed by Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker and based on their television series Police Squad! that lasted only six episodes, spoofed the tropes of police shows and films that had ingrained themselves into audience’s minds over the decades. It centered on an inept and clueless detective named Frank Drebin, played by Leslie Nielsen, who still somehow managed to solve the crime and save the day.

Plot details are...

Exclusive: Leslie Nielsen’s Lt. Frank Drebin was wrong: Cops and women do mix, and with that we have Pamela Anderson joining Liam Neeson in Paramount Pictures’ untitled Naked Gun reboot, which Akiva Schaffer is directing and executive producing for a July 18, 2025 theatrical release.

The Baywatch actress of 110 episodes has the comedy chops; she’s starred in such big-screen titles as Scary Movie 3 and Superhero Movie, both satirical movies ala the spirit of Naked Gun. Anderson also reprised her TV role of C.J. Parker in Paramount’s big-screen 2017 redux of Baywatch that starred Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron and Alexandra Daddario.

Dan Gregor and Doug Mand wrote the draft script along with Schaffer for Naked Gun. Gregor and Mand also wrote the Emmy-winning Disney+ movie Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers. Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins are producing Naked via their company Fuzzy Door. Daniel M. Stillman is EP.

The movie...

Paramount wasn’t messing around during their CinemaCon panel today, giving attendees previews of movies like Smile 2, Gladiator II, A Quiet Place: Day One, Transformers One, and If, revealing The Running Man casting news, and announcing several movies, including a live-action comedy from Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Scary Movie 6, a Transformers / G.I. Joe crossover, and a live-action, R-rated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. They also unveiled several titles on their 2024 – 2026 slate, and we can’t possibly cover them all… so we have gone ahead and dropped the full list into this article. Scroll down to see what Paramount has in store for us over the next couple years.

If

Release Date: May 17, 2024

Written and Directed by: John Krasinski

Producers: Allyson Seeger, p.g.a., John Krasinski, p.g.a., Andrew Form, p.g.a., Ryan Reynolds

Executive Producers: John J. Kelly, George Dewey, Kimberly Nelson LoCascio

Cast: Cailey Fleming,...