Inside Mel Brooks’ ‘Spaceballs’ Sequel: Who Will Be Starring in the Film and More Details
A Spaceballs sequel will be hitting the big screen in the future, and some exciting details have been revealed about the project!
Inside the ‘Spaceballs’ Sequel
Mel Brooks signed on to produce the Spaceballs sequel along with Josh Gad, under Amazon MGM Studios, multiple outlets reported in June 2024.
Josh Greenbaum is set to direct the film, with a script written by Gad, Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez. Kevin Salter is also slated to executive produce the movie.
Gad teased some information about the script he’s been working on in a Facebook post in June 2024.
“Just handed in a film script that I think may be the funniest and best thing I’ve ever worked on and I am so freaking excited. Working with my boys @cubanmissiledh and @benjisamit has been heaven on Earth and many other planets as well. Love you boys!” he captioned the post, which featured a sheet of paper with their names typed on it.
Who Will Be Starring in the Spaceballs Sequel?
So far, Gad has been tapped to star in the Spaceballs sequel. No other official casting decisions have been announced thus far.
The original Spaceballs was released in 1987, and was cowritten, produced and directed by Mel. The parody film starred Bill Pullman, John Candy, Daphne Zuniga, Rick Moranis, Dick Van Patten, Michael Winslow and more.
Mel discussed his decision to make the film in a genre he hadn’t really dipped into before.
“I destroyed the Western in Blazing Saddles. I savaged classic horror films in Young Frankenstein. I sent up silent films in Silent Movie, and I had fun with Hitchcock in High Anxiety,” he wrote in a piece for Literary Hub in December 2021. “Of course, even though I poked fun at all of these genres, in truth I dearly loved them. Cowboy pictures and horror films made my childhood so much more enjoyable. But there were not many genres left for me to satirize, so I eagerly attacked science fiction. There was Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and, reaching back for more fun, the unique and campy director Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space. It was a genre rich with opportunities for devastating satire.”
He went on to explain that the plot of the film was largely inspired by Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night. The experience making the movie with the talented cast is one Mel will never forget.
“It was a joy to come to the set on Spaceballs. In addition to the fun I had with John Candy and Rick Moranis, I got to once again work with my friend Dom DeLuise,” the Oscar winner reflected. “Instead of Jabba the Hut, he did the voice for ‘Pizza the Hut’ — a mountainous living pizza complete with bubbling cheese and studded with slices of pepperoni. Also in the scene with Pizza the Hut was my old pal Rudy De Luca, who played a robotic space mobster named Vinnie, who worked for Pizza the Hut and delivered a threat to Lone Starr, telling him to pay up a million space bucks ‘or else Pizza is gonna send out for you!’”
