Mel Brooks Reveals Why Django Unchained Has Put Him 'In the Clear' to Make a Blazing Saddles Musical

It’s far from official, but Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles musical may be inching closer to reality—and Broadway.

At the TCA panel (representing PBS’s American Masters series), Brooks explained his vision for a potential musical based off of his hit 1974 Western comedy classic, which has long been rumored to be his next stage project.

“A lot of it is musical already,” said Brooks, according to Deadline. “It has a rather fanciful and fantastic tone to it, and now that Django Unchained has literally used the N word, I think I’m in the clear. I don’t look so bad. He really used that word a lot.”

Nominated for three Academy Awards, Blazing Saddles is Brooks’ Hollywood spoof of the Western genre. The story follows a corrupt politician who hires an African-American sheriff to ruin a railroad-blocking town, only to have the sheriff become his main opponent. The film starred Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, Madeline Kahn and Brooks himself.

Brooks already has two hit musicals to his name—The Producers and Young Frankenstein, both stage adaptations of his classic films. He won three Tony Awards in 2001 for The Producers.