It’s one of many Star Wars spoofs – certainly the most famous – and speaking at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood last weekend, legendary director Mel Brooks not only discussed his appreciation for Star Wars (‘it was a combination of all the things that I loved when I was a kid’) but also the ‘deal’ he made with George Lucas when making Spaceballs.
Brooks confirms the story we’ve always heard about his work with George Lucas. Lucas was fine with the parody, as long as Brooks didn’t make any of his own merchandise, which he never has. But, Brooks wondered, is that still true? What if there was ever a Spaceballs 2? Rumors have been circling for decades and now with the film’s original distributor MGM owned by Amazon, those rumors may be bubbling up again, especially with Brooks still floating it as a possibility after all these years. (Was he joking? Almost certainly. But let us dare to dream.)
Brooks also talked about his adoration for the franchise that inspired his movie. “I loved it. I loved the picture,” he said about Star Wars. “I thought it was unusual. I thought it was incredibly original and it was a combination of all the things that I loved when I was a kid, like Ivanhoe and Robin Hood. It was kind of like a fairy tale with zaps. A lot of zaps. But it was good. It was a good movie and its heart was in the right place.”
Could there be a sequel? Will ILM do the VFX, as they almost did for the 1987 original? Who would star in it (and would we get to see 97-year-old Brooks return as Yoghurt?) We don’t know, but we can but hope.
