By coincidence, I was taking to my nephew earlier today, who is 15. That Old Navy commercial came on, with Julie Hagerty. And he started telling me how much he loves Airplane. Then he admitted that he'd never seen any of the movies it spoofs. Why do you think your movies resonate so long after the ones they are parodying have sort of passed, or left the pop culture consciousness?
David Zucker: Well...We usually spoof movies we think are unintentionally funny. That doesn't mean they aren't good. In Scary Movie 3 when we did Signs and The Ring...I think those were good movies. Although, they were stupid. They had their moments of being stupid. They are popcorn movies. But, like with all the Airplane movies, I think you have to have a certain affection for the genre to spoof it. There are some genres that I don't get. I'm not interested in. So I don't want to spoof them. In doing my movies, we like to do it so that you don't necessarily have to be familiar with that genre, or those other movies. The jokes work on their own. Most of the jokes in Airplane!? They do work on their own. Unless the reference is so specific...Like, I think we spoof a coffee commercial of the 1970s. In Airplane! Nobody gets that now.
It does work in bringing that nostalgia back, though. It also makes it unique and interesting for younger audiences, I think. It gives them a sense of that time period...
David Zucker: Yes, true...
In terms of Scary Movie V, some of this stuff that you spoof is straight up garbage. Inception? That movie will be around forever, but some of this other stuff...Like the Ethan Hawke movie, Sinister, that has already been forgotten by the kids...
David Zucker: Which one is that?
Sinister, the snuff movie with Ethan Hawke. And The Devil Inside Me, what is that even? These movies come and go, they're like fast food entertainment...
David Zucker: You are right! Those movies are one-offs, and they get a lot harder to spoof. The way we do Sinister is with a pop culture reference that is so overwhelming, I don't think you even have to know about Sinister...I hadn't seen Sinister. Not until I was directed to spoof it.
Do you actually sit down, as the writer of Scary Movie V, and watch all of these movies that need to make it into your comedy?
David Zucker: Well, some of this stuff, like Evil Dead...Its not even out yet, and we have to spoof it. We just spoof the trailer. The internet makes it easier. Look, some of the jokes in Scary Movie V are going to work better two weeks after it opens than the week that it opens. By then, more people will have seen Evil Dead. We do a very funny scene. It has a very funny take on Evil Dead. It will certainly help if people have seen that movie.
You've continued to go back and shoot extra scenes for the movie, right?
David Zucker: Always. We've always done that. From Scary Movie 3, to Scary Movie 4, to Scary Movie V. We always shoot for two weeks after the movie is done, edited and previewed.
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