David Zucker, who previously delivered us classic spoof movies in the form of The Naked Gun, Airplane! (and even the underrated Scary Movie 3), is returning to the genre. His target this time? Noir films. He’s teaming up once again with writers Pat Proft and Michael McManus to bring us The Star Of Malta, a film set in the 1940s.
The story will revolve around a top-tier ring fighter who was locked up for delivering a deadly blow to his opponent during a fight. After his time is served, he leaves jail to find his lost love who has migrated to Hollywood.
As the fighter makes his way across the country on his journey, he stumbles upon a long thought lost gemstone; the powerful Star of Malta, a damned stone that leads those that have it in their possession to slaughter everyone around them.
Proft created the Police Academy films, which were huge in the 80s, while McManus had a hand in creating Hot Shots Part Deux and Mafia!, so the three have about as much experience with comedy spoofs as anyone could ask for. There’s no better group to try and revive the spoof genre – which was once a consistent theatrical staple – than them.
It will be interesting to see who stars in the film – the days of actors like Leslie Nielsen and even Anna Faris finding their niche in the spoof genre are long gone – and what sort of audience the movie finds.
With the way the internet moves so quickly, memes about movies are out of date about a week after the film first comes out, and everyone has access to their own camera and can spoof films themselves with zero budget. This, in part, killed the genre, so it will be interesting to see how it looks in its revived 2020s form.
#Peace.Love.TheStarOfMalta
