Looking at Jim Abrahams, you probably wouldn't guess he's the man behind some the most brilliantly dumb comedies of all-time, including "Airplane!," "The Naked Gun!," "Hot Shots!," and "Ruthless People." There's nothing about him that seems particularly funny. With his thinning gray hair and wiry frame, he looks a lot like a stereotypical sophomore English teacher. There is nothing particularly "wacky" about him. He doesn't give off the air of a man who wrote lines for Lt. Frank Drebin and Colonel Ted Stryker.
Abrahams, a UW-Madison alumnus, was in town early this week visiting family and speaking to the Jewish Cultural Collective about the "Fifteen Rules of Comedy" he and his former partners, Jerry and David Zucker (also UW alums) devised in the mid-1980s. However, Abrahams' visit to Madison is the start of something bigger, whether or not he wants to admit it. In six weeks, the Weinstein Company will be releasing "Scary Movie 4," which Abrahams co-wrote with David Zucker. It will be his first credit in nearly eight years. Consider it his victory lap — one last madcap sprint around the track.
A lot of people in Hollywood would be terrified about an eight-year drought. Not Abrahams. In fact, he seems remarkably unabashed by the fact that he hasn't made a movie since "Mafia!" in '98. A lot of directors feel an obsessive need to churn out product: not Abrahams. He slowed down after "Mafia!," an effort he now concedes, in an exclusive interview with The Badger Herald, "felt like paint by numbers" and refocused his energies on his charity fund, The Charlie Foundation.
"That's my full-time job," he said of the Santa Monica-based foundation, which raises awareness of the effect on the Ketogenic Diet on children suffering with epilepsy. Along the way, the 61-year-old Abrahams battled leukemia. "I didn't have any real desire to direct again. … The thing about directing is, you can't miss a single day because you're sick," he says.
The thing about guys like Abrahams is, it's hard to keep them out of the pool. Last year, he got a call from his old writing partner, David Zucker, asking him if he wanted to be a part of the fourth installment of the "Scary Movie" franchise. Abrahams jumped at the chance: "I was supposed to be a part of "Scary Movie 3,” but then I got sick. … David called me up and asked me if I wanted to do this one. … We started the script on July 1."
The movie, which opens in April, takes aim at "War of the Worlds," "The Grudge," "The Village" and the "Saw" franchise. In an effort to stay relevant, Zucker and Abrahams pushed back production as far as possible in order to get a look at "War of the Worlds."
When the movie debuts next month, it will come only nine months after Abrahams and Zucker began the script, an incredibly fast turnaround for a major Hollywood movie. Abrahams wasn't phased by the frenetic schedule: in fact, he seems charged about getting a chance to re-enter the wild world of mainstream filmmaking.
He joyfully recounted how he and Zucker were able to land a script of "Saw II."
"We were filming our parody of the end of "Saw II" before they had even filmed it," he said.
He loves the comedic chops of franchise leading lady Anna Faris ("She's fantastic. … I just hope she doesn't get stuck doing these parodies her whole career") and marvels at the ingenuity of Bob Weinstein, the patriarch of the "Scary Movie" franchise ("He has absolutely pin-pointed the audience for these movies. … What he does is amazing. … He and his brother are like old-fashioned movie moguls").
Along with talking about "Scary Movie 4," he was happy to discuss what went into his signature movies from the '80s, displaying a refreshing lack of pretension when it comes to his body of work. He is the first to admit that his movies "don't really aim very high. Satire, like 'Dr. Strangelove' and 'Team America' — that shoots high. We're not satire."
He concedes that the strength of his movies was "nobody really gives a sh-t what happens in a parody. … Nobody really cares whether or not the plane lands or if [the lead characters] get together in the end. … That gave us a lot of freedom"
He hasn't seen the latest entries into the parody genre, including "Date Movie," "Wet Hot American Summer," and "Not Another Teen Movie." He does concede, however, that the parody genre is fraught with potential problems that can trip filmmakers up. He learned this firsthand when "Top Secret!," the follow-up to "Airplane!," flopped (he doesn't seem to take too much comfort in the fact that the movie has found a second life on DVD).
"What we found out [after 'Top Secret!'] is that you have to have an arc. The thing that made 'Airplane!' so successful was that it had three acts and a definite arc. We were just thinking we could make one of these movies every year or so and that would be that."
The muted reception to "Top Secret!" led him and the Zucker Brothers to develop the so-called "Fifteen Rules of Comedy," which have helped him forge a blueprint for future successes. These rules include things like "Make Plot Points Jokes & Jokes Plot Points" and "No Ax-Grinding."
Even though he seems happy about his work on "Scary Movie 4," he doesn't seem to have a burning desire to return to the director's chair. Nor is he entirely sure that he wants to write any more parodies. He mentions that he's writing a novel he hopes to turn into a screenplay. But, for now, he's enjoying that he can do his part for a franchise he seems to regards with genuine amazement.
"I truly believe that we'll be seeing a 'Scary Movie 10' someday." Just don't expect to see Jim Abrahams there. And don't call him Shirley.
