Editorial Staff
That tingly feeling you’re experiencing? it’s the Schwartz!
It’s been a “Spaceballs” kind of day.
If these two nuggets – let alone the Pepperoni smell coming from Pizza the Hutt’s palace- are anything to go by, the long-gestating sequel to the ’80s classic might be inching closer.
Mel Brooks has long wanted to do a follow-up to his beloved “Star Wars” spoof, and most of the cast – notably Bill Pullman, who played Lone Star – are ready and willing, but “Spaceballs II” has just never moved beyond Barf’s notepad. But with Rick Moranis seemingly returning to acting (see below), and Brooks participating in a special “Spaceballs”-related event, the stars – it would seem – are starting to align.
Moranis, who retired from the game (and with a good, admirable reason) after 1997’s “Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves”, will this week reprise his legendary ‘Dark Helmet’ role for an episode of the ’80’s-set comedy series “The Goldbergs”, says USA Today. Though the Canadian actor merely lends his lungs to the episode (he voices the character in a dream sequence), fact that the actor agreed to do it is evidence enough that Moranis, 65, might be not only up for a return to acting but a return to one of his more notable roles.
Adam’s starting a @MelBrooks appreciation club! (Or…trying, anyway.) ? #TheGoldbergs is all-new Wednesday at 8|7c on ABC! pic.twitter.com/j2yyoZdFFE
— The Goldbergs (@TheGoldbergsABC) May 7, 2018
Meanwhile, Mel Brooks participated in an event titled “A Hilarious Live Conversation With Mel Brooks” in New Jersey, which included a screening of “Spaceballs”. The promo poster for the event heavily promoted ‘Spaceballs’, along with the words ‘The Schwartz Awakens’. Hmmm… good name for a movie, right!?
Join @MelBrooks at @NJPAC next Sunday, May 6, for an in-person conversation following a screening of SPACEBALLS! For more info – https://t.co/g06vE90Kln #maytheschwartzbewithyou #melbrookslive pic.twitter.com/xbQCq0DEFi
— The Backlot Project (@BacklotProject) April 29, 2018
Sure, sure, none of this means much but if a MGM studio exec is even contemplating doing a “Spaceballs”, it sounds like they won’t have to do much begging to get Moranis and Brooks back. Heck, for all we know they’re both aware of a sequel plan. In the least, it’s put “Spaceballs” back into the conversation.
Brooks has said in the past that although he and most of the original players (we’ve sadly lost John Candy, Joan Rivers, Dick Van Patten and Dom DeLuise) would be jazzed to do it, it really comes down to the studio.
In February of last year, the legendary filmmaker hosted a screening of “Young Frankenstein” at which he confirmed there was some interest in reviving “Spaceballs” on MGM’s side.
“Well, you know, MGM is slightly interested in doing it because of ‘Star Wars Rogue One’ and ‘The Force Awakens’ and the new ‘Star Wars’ explosion, so they think maybe… so we’re talking.”
Bill Pullman, who along with Daphne Zuniga (Princess Vespa), has long expressed an interest in doing a sequel suggested it might be too late for such a movie – noting that Brooks is now in his nineties.
“It’s the ticking clock of all time, isn’t it?” the actor told The Times. “I’m just so glad I’m not in my nineties and being in Mel Brooks skit with the number of people who are waiting for him to do ‘Spaceballs: The Sequel'”.
There’s still time, Bill. There’s still time….
