HOT SHOTS
Total Film|November 2021
AS JIM ABRAHAMS’ SLAPSTICK CLASSIC TURNS 30 – AND BEFORE TOP GUN TAKES TO THE SKY AGAIN SOON – BUFF JUMPS INTO THE COCKPIT AND FLIES BACK TO 1991 TO FIND OUT HOW TOPPER HARLEY RESTORED THE AIRPLANE! DIRECTOR’S CONFIDENCE…
SIMON BLAND
HOT SHOTS

There are plenty of movie spoofs out there, but few have had the same impact on pop culture as those co-created by Jim Abrahams. Together with siblings David and Jerry Zucker, these friends turned-filmmakers (collectively known as ZAZ) brought us 1980’s Airplane! - a movie that skewered the comedy genre and forever changed the lives of people named Shirley. Loaded with innuendo and an irresistible mix of the ridiculous and the deadpan, the film’s mile-a-minute humor quickly became the trio’s calling-card feature. However, as the ’90s approached, they were itching to go solo - and while David found similar screwball success with 1984’s The Naked Gun and Jerry garnered Oscar nods with 1990’s supernatural comedy Ghost, Abrahams was finding it trickier to zero in on a film that best encapsulated his own ethos.

“I had made a couple of movies that weren’t parodies and struggled with some of the tones,” admits Abrahams, reflecting on his first two solo-helmed features, 1988’s Big Business, and 1990’s Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael. “That’s when Pat [Proft] called and said ‘Why don’t we try doing Hot Shots!?’ - which was basically a send-up of Top Gun.” While rarely ever occupying the director’s chair, Proft was the screenwriter behind many of ZAZ’s finest comedic moments, so when the idea of parodying Tony Scott’s Tom Cruise-fronted fighter-pilot drama flew past Abrahams, it felt too good to pass up. “We’d been good friends for a while. He worked on The Naked Gun, and with David, Jerry, and me in Kentucky Fried Theatre,” he says, recalling his old sketch comedy troupe. “Plus, there’s no better guy in the world to pitch a script with than him. He’s really funny.”

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2021-Ausgabe von Total Film.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2021-Ausgabe von Total Film.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

WEITERE ARTIKEL AUS TOTAL FILMAlle anzeigen
Back With a Vengeance - Sir Ridley Scott returns to the Colosseum with Gladiator II, the long-awaited sequel to the greatest historical epic of this century. Total Film meets the director and cast to discover how Maximus' legacy is echoing in eternity.
Total Film

Back With a Vengeance - Sir Ridley Scott returns to the Colosseum with Gladiator II, the long-awaited sequel to the greatest historical epic of this century. Total Film meets the director and cast to discover how Maximus' legacy is echoing in eternity.

Ridley Scott is not a filmmaker to repeat himself. It's a trait that's all the more remarkable when you consider how prolific he's been over the nearly five decades since his feature debut, 1977's The Duellists. Alien prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant are the only times he's gone back to the same world, and those films are radical departures from the original.

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
November 2024
Bad Romance - Timestalker Alice Lowe falls in love with the wrong man time and time again...
Total Film

Bad Romance - Timestalker Alice Lowe falls in love with the wrong man time and time again...

Her antidote to that? Timestalker a dark not-quite-romcom set over the course of centuries. Her protagonist Agnes finds herself attracted to the same man, Alex (Dunkirk's Aneurin Barnard), in every lifetime as she's reincarnated in the 1680s, 1790s, 1980s and the 22nd century. As romantic as that may sound, there's a bit of a catch: 'He's sort of a dickhead. On the surface he's appealing, but under, he's not.'

time-read
2 Minuten  |
October 2024
McQueen & Country
Total Film

McQueen & Country

A moment of national pride and terror comes to the screen with World War Two historical drama Blitz. Total Film speaks to writer/director Steve McQueen and his stars Saoirse Ronan and Stephen Graham about uncovering the truth and celebrating the triumph of a defining moment in modern British history.

time-read
7 Minuten  |
November 2024
'I WAS, AND AM STILL, SURPRISED BY EVERY OPPORTUNITY. I'VE BEEN CONTINUOUS AND FEEL AT THE TOP OF MY FORM' JEFF GOLDBLUM
Total Film

'I WAS, AND AM STILL, SURPRISED BY EVERY OPPORTUNITY. I'VE BEEN CONTINUOUS AND FEEL AT THE TOP OF MY FORM' JEFF GOLDBLUM

Seth Brundle. Dr. Ian Malcolm. Grandmaster. Jeff Goldblum has played some titanic characters over his 50-year career, and is celebrating a half-century on our screens by going bigger than ever. First he played Zeus in Netflix show Kaos, and now he's the Wizard of Oz in Wicked. Total Film meets the man behind the curtain...

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
November 2024
STICKY SITUATION
Total Film

STICKY SITUATION

Seven years on from his last big-screen appearance, marmalade's biggest fan returns for Paddington in Peru. Total Film talks to director Dougal Wilson, actor Hugh Bonneville and the visual-effects wizards who make the magic happen...

time-read
9 Minuten  |
November 2024
BORN TO BE WILD
Total Film

BORN TO BE WILD

BROTHERS IS THE MOST SURPRISING ACTION COMEDY OF THE YEAR, AND NOT JUST BECAUSE JOSH BROLIN AND PETER DINKLAGE PLAY CRIMINAL TWINS. TOTAL FILM ROUNDS UP THE STARS TO TALK ABOUT DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES, THE 'HARD AS NAILS' COMEDIES THEY GREW UP WITH, AND MASTURBATING MONKEYS...

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
November 2024
TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
Total Film

TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT Payal Kapadia's film shows the Mumbai you've never seen...

time-read
2 Minuten  |
November 2024
HUMPH DAY BOGART: LIFE COMES IN FLASHES
Total Film

HUMPH DAY BOGART: LIFE COMES IN FLASHES

Behind every great man is a great woman. Or in Humphrey Bogart's case, four great women...

time-read
2 Minuten  |
November 2024
CALLING THE SHOTS
Total Film

CALLING THE SHOTS

NEVER LOOK AWAY Lucy Lawless directs a bio-doc about a trailblazing camerawoman...

time-read
2 Minuten  |
November 2024
A FAMILY HEIRLOOM
Total Film

A FAMILY HEIRLOOM

THE PIANO LESSON Malcolm Washington's feature debut is all about family...

time-read
2 Minuten  |
November 2024