Posted in: Movies, Paramount Pictures | Tagged: The Naked Gun

The Naked Gun Director Threatened To Quit If A Specific Scene Was Cut

The Naked Gun director Akiva Schaffer revealed that he threatened to quit to prevent the snowman scene from being cut.

The Naked Gun hits the ground running and doesn't waste much, if any, time getting to the jokes. It's a breakneck pace, but there is a scene in the second act that kind of acts like a palate cleanser because it's so different from anything else that we've seen. It's the snowman scene, and we're not going to spoil the entire thing, but it's the cinematic equivalent of a side quest, with some "show, don't tell" moments sprinkled in and nothing ultimately to do with the plot. Director Akiva Schaffer revealed during an interview on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast (via GamesRadar+) that he fought for that scene to stay in the film to the point that he reportedly threatened to quit.

"It was polarizing in script-reads," Schaffer said. "People I really respect, like Andy Samberg, when he read it for me, he was like, 'Snowman's the best. Do not let them cut it,' knowing it would be cuttable. It makes sense once you see the movie, but at one point I did have to threaten to quit."

Schaffer went on to say that even in the first test screening, "it was the number one scene in the movie. … The people that really fought me on it after ate a lot of crow without me asking. I tried to let them off the hook easy, and go, 'That's fine,' but they were like, 'No, dude, we were wrong.'"

It was a scene that got a lot of big laughs during my press screening that was open to the public, but hearing that Schaffer was willing to walk away if Paramount tried to micromanage the film during the editing process was awesome. So many directors have been steamrolled by the studios who were backing their films, and by the time it ends up in theaters, it might not even resemble the original project. However, The Naked Gun and Schaffer clearly wanted this movie to be more.

"No offense to other reboots and redos and legacy sequels out there, but a lot of them are so stuck on re-doing the stuff that the original did," Schaffer argued. "You watch them and are delighted, but it's like empty calories, and when it's done, you barely remember that you saw it because, my theory at least, is they're not really a new movie.  They're fan fiction of the old movie." We've seen many legacy sequels fall apart because they were too irreverent to the source material. The Naked Gun really does seem to walk that line for fans in that it's a legacy sequel that feels true to the previous films while also feeling (mostly) like an original property that can stand on its own two feet.

The Naked Gun: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

Only one man has the particular set of skills… to lead Police Squad and save the world! Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) follows in his father's footsteps in The Naked Gun, directed by Akiva Schaffer (Saturday Night Live, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping) and produced by Seth MacFarlane (Ted, Family Guy). Joining the cast are Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand, Cody Rhodes, Liza Koshy, Eddie Yu, and Danny Huston. The Naked Gun was released in theaters on August 1, 2025.

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