Spaceballs 2 a Go? Mel Brooks Talks Sequel, Its Perfect, Obvious Title and Rick Moranis

This might excite you so much that you'll barely be able to hold your oil

By Corinne Heller Feb 07, 2015 12:07 AMTags
Spaceballs 1987 Brooksfilms / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Spaceballs fans, this might excite you so much that you'll barely be able to hold your oil.

Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money may actually become a thing. Mel Brooks, director, co-writer and star of the hit cult 1987 Star Wars parody comedy film, is thinking about making a sequel.

The 88-year-old talked about it on Adam Carolla's podcast Take a Knee last week, and the news has recently been circulating on Reddit and other outlets. In Spaceballs, swashbuckling mercenary and hero Lone Star, played by Bill Pullman, asks one of Brooks' characters, Yogurt, a Yoda-like guru, if they'll ever see each other again. He tells him, "Who knows. God willing, we'll all meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money."

To refresh your memory, Spaceballs ended on a happy note for some, following a short, short wedding—and an odd one for others, with a spacecraft crash and a nod to Planet of the Apes.

Brooksfilms / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

"And I'm thinking now, if I said, if I did a movie that came out right after Star Wars comes out, you know,maybe a couple of months later, Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money, I'd have a big weekend, you know, no matter what, even if it fell on its ass and you know, didn't get that money back," Brooks told Carolla on the podcast.

He is referring to J.J. Abrams' upcoming anticipated movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is set for release on Dec. 18 and marks the first film in the franchise in 10 years and the start of a third trilogy.

"But that first weekend, the anticipation of seeing Spaceballs 2, would, you know...I still have Daphne Zuniga and I still have Rick Moranis if he'd do it, and I've still got me."

So, you're saying there's a chance... All together now:

Brooksfilms / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Zuniga, who played Lone Star's spoiled but badass love interest Princess Vespa, a spoof of Princess Leia, has not commented. Nor has Pullman.

Moranis, who played the Darth Vader-like Dark Helmet and is also known for roles in movies such as Ghostbusters and Honey, I Strunk the Kids, stopped acting onscreen in the mid-'90s, several years after his wife died of cancer, and became a stay-at-home dad to their two kids. He has since done some voiceover work and has also released a couple of music albums.

He said in a 2013 interview with Heeb magazine that Brooks initially wanted to make a Spaceballs sequel after the film became a cult video hit.

"And my idea for it was Spaceballs 3: The Search for Spaceballs 2," he said. "And I was unable to make a deal with Mel. I couldn't make a deal."

"I wasn't privy to what the budget was or anything, but the deal he presented me, what he wanted me to do, was not workable," he added. "It was two or three years later. He wanted me to...it's better if I don't get into the particulars of it. Because it is so specific, it's counter-productive to talk about it. But I was unable to make a deal, and it would have been something I would have wanted to do. But that ship has sailed."

Brooksfilms / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Brooks, who also played the villain President Skroob (pictured above), was also asked about a Spaceballs sequel in a 2014 interview with Parade magazine.

"Without Rick, I wouldn't do it," he said. "I've got the helmet in storage, just waiting for him. It'll fit nobody else. Rick is five-five-and-a-half. It's a perfect fit for the big helmet. He was such a genius."

Brooksfilms / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

"Tom [Meehan], who wrote it with me, has great ideas and I would love to do Spaceballs 2," Brooks added. We even have the title because in Spaceballs I said, "Maybe we'll do Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money. That's what I would call it. It's the perfect title. I think it would take somebody like you to get Rick out of retirement. I've asked him plenty of times and he's been really strict about it."

Three cast members are, sadly, deceased: John Candy, who played Lone Star's sidekick Barf, a mog (half man, half dog: He's his own best friend). The actor, also known for playing the title role in Uncle Buck, died at age 43 in 1994. Joan Rivers, who provided the voice of the sassy, C-3PO-like android and handmaiden Dot Matrix, died at age 81 last September and Dom DeLuise, who played the (delicious) villain Pizza the Hut, died at age 75 in 2009.

"What a great, great, big guy, a big talent," Brooks said on Carolla's podcast, about Candy, adding, "I used to hide candy all over the set and he'd find it."

Rivers, Deluise, Zuniga and Brooks were the only original cast members to reprise their roles in Spaceballs: The Animated Series, which aired on G4 for one season, starting in 2008.

While a Spaceballs movie sequel remains possible, merchandise still does not (sorry, no flamethrowers, wedding cake toppers or other dolls or Cracker Jack rings of the Schwartz).

Brooksfilms / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Brooksfilms / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

This is due to a deal Brooks had made with Star Wars creator George Lucas after obtaining permission to release a parody of his iconic original trilogy.

"I wasn't allowed to do any merchandising. Even though my character said, 'Merchandising, merchandising, the thing that really makes money.' I wasn't allowed to do that," Brooks told A.V. Club in 2012. "Fox and Lucas were making a fortune, and this really, you know, was stealing. I stole a lot, and I satirize it, but the script was different."

"He wrote me a lovely note saying me how much he loved the picture," he added about Lucas. "He said it's dangerous comedy. He said, 'I was afraid I would bust something from laughing.'"