Josh Gad Had To Catch Mel Brooks Up On ‘Star Wars’ Franchise During ‘Spaceballs’ Sequel Pitch

deadline.com:

A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away, Mel Brooks blessed Star Wars fans with the ultimate parody… but he hasn’t kept up with the franchise since.

Josh Gad, who is developing a sequel to Brooks’ Spaceballs (1987), revealed that he had to explain the latest Star Wars installments when pitching his take on the follow-up to the beloved parody. “Mel is incredibly involved,” he said on the Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast. “I’ll share a funny story that I haven’t yet shared.

When we were pitching him the original conceit for what we wanted to do with the film, at the beginning he goes, ‘I’m just telling you now, I want you to really go into detail because I don’t know a lot about the new Star Wars films.’ And I said, ‘okay.'” Gad said he pitched Brooks for “40 minutes,” adding, “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.