{"id":497499,"date":"2026-06-13T08:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T08:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/497499\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T08:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T08:33:16","slug":"scary-movie-kazaam-director-defends-shaq-movie-about-rapping-genie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/497499\/","title":{"rendered":"Scary Movie: Kazaam Director Defends Shaq Movie About Rapping Genie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe director of Shaquille O\u2019Neal\u2019s 1996 musical comedy Kazaam is offering his thoughts on the new Scary Movie<\/a> taking a swing at his film. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn the Paramount<\/a> comedy reboot that topped the box office over its opening weekend after debuting June 5 (with mild spoilers ahead), O\u2019Neal is unmasked as Ghostface in a cameo near the end of the movie. Shorty Meeks, the franchise mainstay played by producer and co-writer Marlon Wayans<\/a>, impersonates O\u2019Neal<\/a> as a mumbling NBA commentator before quipping, \u201cBut I never got over Kazaam.\u201d He then kills the basketball legend for starring as a rapping genie in the Disney movie that underperformed at the box office 30 years ago. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI had no clue,\u201d Paul Michael Glaser tells The Hollywood Reporter about whether he knew the joke was coming. The Kazaam director adds diplomatically, \u201cIt\u2019s nice that something you worked on has some resonance.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter hearing a description of the joke, Glaser \u2014 known both for filmmaking and for such acting roles as Detective Dave Starsky\u00a0in the series Starsky & Hutch \u2014 admits to mixed feelings. \u201cThat\u2019s nice,\u201d he says jokingly with a laugh. \u201cIt sounds to me that when they said, \u2018I never got over Kazaam,\u2019 and they killed him, that\u2019s because Kazaam was such a terrible movie.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tStill, Glaser acknowledges that he will always be grateful that a project of his gets remembered and that if the Scary Movie team had reached out ahead of time to get his blessing, he would have had no problem with a joke at his movie\u2019s expense. When asked whether he thinks it might make some younger viewers curious to check out Kazaam, he says, \u201cWho knows? It might jog a few memories.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMarlon Wayans (left), Regina Hall and Shawn Wayans in Scary Movie.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tParamount Pictures<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for Kazaam\u2019s origins, Glaser, having at that time directed 1987\u2019s original The Running Man<\/a> and the 1992 ice skating rom-com The Cutting Edge, remembers a family friend who worked on O\u2019Neal\u2019s management team calling to ask if he and his son would like to attend the NBA All-Star Game. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd they said, \u2018In the meantime, do you know of any good film roles for Shaq before he goes back to basketball camp at the end of the summer?’\u201d Glaser says. The filmmaker had a quick, flippant response: \u201cI said, \u2018No, he ought to play a genie,\u2019 and I hung up the phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the more Glaser mulled it over, the more it felt that the concept could actually have potential: \u201cI came up with that idea about a genie who lost his power, and [through] experiencing the caring and love of a good friendship, he rediscovers his power. I still believe that was a really good idea. I don\u2019t think we executed it as well as we could have.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the genie\u2019s proclivity for rapping, Glaser remembers that stemming from O\u2019Neal\u2019s own pursuit of a hip-hop career in the 1990s. \u201cAt the time, Shaq fancied himself a rap musician, so I wrote it as a rap musical,\u201d the director explains. \u201cBut he was a lovely guy and great to work with.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The director of Shaquille O\u2019Neal\u2019s 1996 musical comedy Kazaam is offering his thoughts on the new Scary Movie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,12227,270,3282,78996,48868],"class_list":["post-497499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-marlon-wayans","tag-movies","tag-paramount","tag-scary-movie","tag-shaquille-oneal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}