David S. Zucker Quotes

• Chevy Chase and Bill Murray – we thought those guys were funny. We love Bill Murray, but we didn’t think they were right for Airplane! because it would step on the joke if there was a known comedian.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Funny, Love

  Tags in Think

• Everything about it worked, and I don’t mean just the movie, but in our experience, we realized there’s also a component of luck involved in this business. We had absolutely the most competent people in the studio working on the release and ad campaign.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Business, Work

• I believe in justice, maybe not in this life, but there has to be justice. And if there isn’t a God, I think it would be very depressing. I’d prefer to believe there is.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in God, Life

  Tags in Think, Believe

• I don’t know if I’d want to do that anymore, because you always get bigger laughs on college campuses. So, when the film plays in front of a city audience, you’ve probably cut too loosely.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in College

  Tags in Play

• I don’t really know a lot of famous people. I’ve met a lot of famous people. If I ran into Tom Hanks today, I would have to remind him who I was and he would then remember me. But he wouldn’t come up to me and say, “Hi Dave!”

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People, Famous

• I don’t take reviews very seriously, but in their totality I think they are representative of how the audience feels, and of what their reaction is. There’s always one guy who doesn’t get it.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Think, Representative

• I don’t think there has been any increase in sophistication in the audience. When people are aware of a concept that’s easy to understand, and there’s an actor who will attract them to the theater and it’s a movie that’s funny three-quarters of the time, it will be successful.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Success

  Tags in Movie

• I think once we started directing separately – we each have different kinds of interests now, and the kinds of movies we want to do. I wouldn’t hold your breath for that one.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Movies

  Tags in Think, Interests

• I think that came out of watching all those serious movies for all that time. If you watch a movie like Zero Hour, Sterling Hayden is pretty funny, and so are the guys in the cockpit.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Movies

  Tags in Time, Think, Like, Watching

• I think up until the point when we started in the business, which was in the early ’70s, most of the humor was political. The smart humor was political satire.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Business

  Tags in Political

• I think we grew up thinking that the funniest things on TV were the old, serious movies. I always liked the Marx Brothers, but the thing that always made us laugh were movies like Zero Hour. That’s what inspired us.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Movies

  Tags in Think, Like

• I would love to work with Adam Sandler. Because then all I’d have to do is just turn the camera on and off.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Love, Work

• I’ve always thought those guys are really funny. And I love Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin and Mary.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Funny, Love

• It didn’t happen every time for every movie. Ruthless People was a good movie, but we didn’t get a good release or marketing. They completely blew the opening.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Movies

  Tags in Time, Good, Marketing

• It’s useless to try and make rhyme or reason of it, because one guy thinks one thing and the other guy sees a whole other thing. So I try not to take them too seriously. Lately I have them screened so I only read the positive ones.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Positive

• Oh yeah, I believe in God. I think there’s much more evidence that there is a God than that there isn’t. I don’t believe that Mother Theresa and Hitler go to the same place.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in God, Mother

  Tags in Believe

• Our fathers were actually business partners in the same real-estate firm, and we got together and thought, How can we get a movie together and get distribution and create a new movie genre? We started by making satires of commercials.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Business

  Tags in Movie

• Our producer Jon Davison thought it would be a good idea to put in additional TV scenes. So, they sent me a tape of these additional TV scenes, and I watched them, and I didn’t think they were that great. I didn’t think it was worth putting them in.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Good, Producer

• Quit now, you’ll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you’ll be halfway there.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Advice

• I lose tons of stuff on the cutting room floor. For Scary Movie 3, for example, we had a lot of Matrix spoofs, a Hulk scene, and some of that stuff just doesn’t hold up – it’s too much plot, audiences just didn’t want to hear about it.

  David S. Zucker

  Topics in Movies

  Tags in Audience

David S. Zucker (30)

Birth:	16th October, 1947
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Film Director, Producer, Screenwriter

About

David S. Zucker is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zucker was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Charlotte and Burton Zucker, who was a real estate developer. He graduated from Shorewood High School. Zucker is married to Dr. Danielle Zucker, with whom he has two children, Charles and Sarah. His younger brother, Jerry, is his filmmaking partner. The Zucker brothers have a sister, Susan Breslau.

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