As far as hilarious genre parodies go, you probably won’t be able to find a more beloved film than Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs. (Perhaps, with the exception of Brooks’ Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein.) The 1987 Star Wars satire gloriously took the then-recently-concluded Original Trilogy and mashed it up with a healthy dash of pop-culture lampooning into a heaping helping of hilarity. While rumors of a potential sequel have been floating around ever since, it seems that Brooks’ latest comments on the matter show that he remains committed to using The Schwartz to make the film a reality and SOON.
On a recent appearance on comedian Adam Corolla’s Take a Knee podcast (recounted on Reddit), Brooks would confirm to the audience that a Spaceballs sequel "is actually going to happen." The comedy icon further expressed that he "really wants to do it", with plans to ask back Rick Moranis and the other members of the original cast. (Obviously, minus John Candy and now, recently, Joan Rivers, who have passed.) It is apparently Brooks’ intent to start filming after the ever-impending release of this December’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In other words, filming for this nearly-three-decades-in-the-making project could be just under a year away!
As a joke in the film famously hinted, the sequel’s title would be, Spaceballs: The Search for More Money. While timely lampooning of the Prequel Trilogy would not get to happen during the contemporaneous period of those films, Brooks did put together Spaceballs: The Animated Series, which had a brief run in 2008 and did tackle some Prequel-related ribbing. However, it will be interesting to see exactly who Brooks would bring on to this project. The man is currently 88 years old and while his contributions to the comedic world have been vast, a fresh new take on Spaceballs with writing and directorial recruits who actually grew up laughing hysterically at the first film would probably be necessary. Such candidates not only need to understand Star Wars and its culture, but the deep, complex meta level of humor that Brooks brought to the table, like this famous scene provided below.
The original Spaceballs featured characters who were amusingly absurd amalgams of the Star Wars primary cast. Bill Pullman’s Lone Starr was something almost straight out of a Ralph McQuarrie early concept sketch of a Luke Skywalker/Han Solo nascent hybrid. Daphne Zuniga’s Princess Vespa was Princess Leia put through the ringer of Brooks’ signature self-deprecating humor. John Candy’s Barf and Joan Rivers’ Dot Matrix served as combinations of Chewbacca and C-3PO and the actors’ signature comedic personas. Rick Moranis’ Dark Helmet served up a scrawny Darth Vader, over-compensating with an obscenely large helmet, whose whiny nature almost foreshadowed the Anakin Skywalker character we’d get in the Star Wars prequels. (Burn!)
Even Brooks himself had a duel role as a non-Star Wars inspired bureaucratic nincompoop, President Skroob, and the wise, kosher-ized version of Yoda in Yogurt. The mere thought of seeing newer Star Wars concepts similarly put through the Brooks bonanza of satire is exciting.
Spaceballs: The Search for More Money (please, please call it that) still has no confirmed shooting date, much less a release date. However, the word from some folks who have nabbed the "Instant Cassette" thought it was an amazing return to form.
