The Funny Story Behind Josh Gad Pitching Spaceballs 2 To Mel Brooks Involves Decades Of Star Wars History And The ‘Greatest Compliment’
In one of the best parody movies, Spaceballs, the wise sage Yogurt says we’ll all meet again for Spaceballs 2: The Search For More Money. Well, it’s been over 35 years since the space opera spoof first made us laugh, and we’re still waiting to see the hilarious cast of characters again. As Josh Gad works on a Spaceballs sequel, he recalls the funny story of pitching the new movie to creator Mel Brooks – which involves decades of Star Wars history and the “greatest compliment” from him.
The closest we’ve ever gotten to a Spaceballs continuation was in G4’s short-lived Spaceballs: The Animated Series, which was more of a retelling of the movie than a sequel. The second Spaceballs that never was first was thought of in 2013 with Dark Helmet’s Rick Moranis saying he and Mel Brooks were unable to come up with a working deal for it. Two years later, Brooks wanted to make a Spaceballs 2 that would start filming after Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but it still never happened.
Finally after talks with MGM, a Spaceballs sequel is a-go with Josh Gad starring, co-producing, and co-writing the script. In a podcast episode of Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa, the Frozen actor spoke about when he starred on the FX series The Comedians, he met his “idol” Mel Brooks when he came on as a guest star. Being such a fan of one of the best ‘80s movies, Gad shared a funny story of pitching his idea to Brooks:
Early on the in process, because Mel wasn’t necessarily up to date on the latest Star Wars films – when we were pitching him the original conceit for what we wanted to do with the film, in the beginning he goes, ‘I’m just telling you now, I want you to really go into detail, because I I don’t know a lot about the new Star Wars films.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ So I pitch for 40 minutes. It’s literally like, I am a combat vet just going to war in front of one person. I’m sweating, I am getting into every line and every beat and every comedic set piece, every reveal. I’m painting all of it, and I’m speaking to how this speaks to a certain Star Wars moment, etc. And there’s silence, and at the end of it, he goes, ‘Wow, Josh! It really sounds like you’ve got your finger on the pulse!’ I was like, ‘OK.’ That is the greatest compliment I could have ever gotten, even though there’s no context for it for Mel. He really just trusted everything I had to say.
For the record, Josh Gad does a scarily spot-on impression of Mel Brooks in the podcast episode! To tell Gad he’s got his “finger on the pulse” of the anticipated sequel must have been a real honor to receive from the man responsible for shaping the comedy film genre. It’s clear that The Wedding Ringer actor truly is a Spaceballs fan for constructing a 40-minute pitch of what he envisioned a sequel would be like. As the best movies from the Star Wars franchise have expanded ever since the 1987 classic, there’s so much more to spoof for a new movie that could come from the prequels, the J.J. Abrams sequels, and maybe even the TV shows. For Brooks to place his trust in Gad to take care of his comedy masterpiece truly is a genuine compliment.
Josh Gad’s latest update about Spaceballs 2 came from November when he said the draft was done and those who read the script were “blown away.” The Tony nominee talked more about his excitement about the highly-anticipated sequel and what we can expect from it, saying,
I’ve never been more excited about anything I’ve worked on. The script is everything I think we hoped for and more. I wrote it with these two guys – Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit. And it is truly in every way, shape or form a love letter to not only Spaceballs but to all things Mel Brooks. It is very much a sequel with a capital S, and we have a lot of surprises in store. And without getting shot by Amazon’s space force, I will have to leave it there, but I will tell you things are progressing very quickly, and we’re very excited. Mel is incredibly involved.
News like that makes the Spaceballs fan in me incredibly excited. Not only are we going to get some nostalgia feels for the spoof comedy it originated from but for the creator behind some of the best spoofs in film history. Mel Brooks movies have a way of relating to audiences by bringing back absurd moments found in our favorite movies, political issues, and life in general. I’m really curious what a modern sequel of the classic sci-fi comedy would look like and what would be spoofed this time around.
So far what we know about the sci-fi movie spoof is that Mel Brooks plans to produce with Josh Gad. Strays director Josh Greenbaum will be directing the second Spaceballs film, and he actually has a Star Wars connection of his own: He profiled sound designers of the franchise in the documentary short Behind the Mac: Skywalker Sound, which clearly means he has a passion for the George Lucas film series as well. With no word yet on the plot, I’d like to believe we’ll see some jokes surrounding the recent Star Wars films. Hopefully something in there about a certain Jedi’s hatred of sand, if we’re lucky.
With Gad being such a superfan of the original movie, I’m confident he’ll wow audiences with the continuation just like Brooks wowed him with his parody movie. Until we get sequel release date news, you can watch the movie that started it all on your AMC+ subscription.
