One of the legends in spoof comedy is about to return for The Star of Malta, and has offered new details on the film. Hailing from Naked Gun co-creator David Zucker, the film was announced in late 2021, serving as a send-up of the noir film genre. Also co-written by frequent collaborator and Scary Movie franchise vet Pat Proft, Star of Malta will revolve around a prizefighter who, after getting out of jail for inadvertently killing an opponent in the ring, embarks on a cross-country trek to reunite with his lost love after her move to Hollywood, coming upon the eponymous gemstone that brings deadly results for its possessor. In honor of his upcoming Naked Gun screening and Q&A for 2026’s Netflix is a Joke festival, ScreenRant’s Grant Hermanns interviewed David Zucker, during which he shared some insight into Star of Malta. The filmmaker began by explaining that his new film, the first he’s directed in nearly 20 years, will feature some traditional elements of the film noir genre, including a 1949 setting and being produced in black and white. However, Zucker clarified that he’s not taking the same approach to spoofing the genre as the underrated Steve Martin comedy Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, as his film is “not a femme fatale walk[ing] into the LA gumshoe’s detective office” to kick off the plot. Instead, the co-writer/director looked to a variety of other genre films from the 1940s and 50s for inspiration, including one that’s enjoyed numerous critical reappraisals to become a classic:
David Zucker: There were many film noir movies from 1945 to ’55 that didn’t have that as a theme at all. There was Double Indemnity. And our particular movie this is based on is a movie called Detour, and that’s what we’re using as our zero-hour. People are really into film noir, but you don’t have to be familiar with Detour, or even film noir. I’ve learned a lot of lessons over the years, and story is the most important thing. No matter what the setting of the movie, who the actors are, if the story works, and you can make the audience care about the characters, then you have a chance at having success.
When asked about progress on the film, Zucker confirmed that Star of Malta is currently in the pre-production stage, with him and his team actively casting the two lead characters. He concluded by confirming that “once we cast the boy and the girl, the movie will be a green light.” Zucker is known as being one of the original pioneers of the spoof comedy genre, along with his brother and fellow filmmakers, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, forming the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker banner. In addition to the original Naked Gun movies, the group is best known for the 1980 classic Airplane! and the Val Kilmer-starring spy spoof Top Secret!. The trio have since largely worked separately, with David Zucker doing everything from BASEketball to the third and fourth Scary Movie installments, while his brother helmed Demi Moore’s Ghost and producing a variety of films, including Julia Roberts’ My Best Friend’s Wedding and Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake’s Friends with Benefits. Abrahams found further success in the spoof genre with the Charlie Sheen-led Hot Shots! movies in the early ’90s before largely stepping away beginning in the 2000s before his death in 2024.

Related

10 Movies Spoofed By The Zucker Brothers

From Airplane! to The Naked Gun, the Zucker brothers rank among the most renowned spoofers in Hollywood. They’ve parodied all kinds of movie classics.

Star of Malta has been on the radar of many of Zucker’s fans since its late 2021 announcement, given it will be his first directorial effort in decades. His previous outing, the political satire An American Carol, was a critical and commercial bomb upon its 2008 release, currently holding a 15% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and only grossing $7 million against its $20 million production budget. He did later co-write and direct additional material for Scary Movie 5, and was previously developing a new Naked Gun before Akiva Schaffer and Liam Neeson’s legacy sequel.

With pre-production actively underway after a near-five-year wait, the curiosity now turns to the release timeline for Star of Malta. At the time of writing, no distributor has been publicly announced for the noir spoof movie, and with no specific window on a start on principal photography, the film likely won’t release until toward the end of 2027. However, with Zucker also currently teaming with Amazon Germany to produce a new comedy, Oktoberfest, it will be interesting to see if their partnership paves the way for Amazon MGM to pick up his directorial return for a wide release.

Director

David Zucker

Writers

Michael McManus, Pat Proft

Producers

Clay Pecorin, Russell Geyser