The old get a great cast to create a remake from a weak script and hope it turns out okay trick.

Updated: April 18, 2008

After being in development since 1999, Get Smart The Movie is virtually finished production and is scheduled to be released in theaters June 20, with its DVD release in December. The remake will star Steve Carell as Max, Anne Hathaway as 99, and be directed by Peter Segal. Other important cast members are: Alan Arkin - The Chief Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson - Agent 23 Terence Stamp - Siegfried Ken Davitan - Shtarker Masi Oka and Nate Torrence play Max's nerdy analyst friends Bruce and Lloyd.  David Koechner - Larabee Bill Murray - Agent 13 Patrick Washburton - Hymie (cameo) Terry Crews - Agent 91 The Great Khali will be playing the giant.  Bernie Kopell will be doing a cameo, as will several other interesting people. Dick Gautier, and Dave Ketchum will not be doing cameos and not all of them were even asked. Steve Carell has publicly announced that Barbara Feldon is not doing a cameo, but I'm hearing conflicting reports about that so they may be trying to have it remain a secret. It was not in the preview version I saw. The movie also will be dedicated to Don Adams and Ed Platt, which is a really nice tribute to Ed and his often-overlooked contribution to the series' success. Adding Ed's name to the credits is an incredibly classy move by the producers and should be applauded.

Steve Carell & Anne Hathaway as Max and 99. Photo copyright Warner Brothers and used with their permission. It may not be used on any other website without the explicit permission of Warner Brothers.

NEW- Industry trades have been reporting that famed intellectual property lawyer Marc Toberoff was planning legal action against Warner Brothers and this movie. Toberoff has stated that he does not represent the Adams estate in their dealings against WB on this movie. However, as I reported earlier, he did represent Mel Brooks and Buck Henry when WB tried to deny that they created Get Smart and he did get that settled in their favor. However, a studio source has reconfirmed that there is legal action against the movie on the behalf of the estate of Don Adams. As Adams often talked about how he took ownership rights for Get Smart in lieu of a large salary, the legal situation probably involves the degree of rights and compensation involved.

There have been numerous versions of the script over the years, with the "finished" version by Tom Astle and Matt Ember, though Steve Carell and B.J. Novak have had a hand in rewrites of that "finished" script. Mel Brooks, Buck Henry, and Leonard Stern WERE NOT even contacted by the movie's creative team until shooting was well under way and their contribution to the movie was minimal, at best.  There are several little touches in the movie to try and please fans of the original series, including mentions of Mr. Big, Ship of Spies, and naming the airline Max flies on "Yarmy Airlines." A far better way to honor the original series and its fans would have been to involve Stern, Henry, and Brooks from the start, but that wasn't possible (see below).  

There are numerous, intense action scenes throughout the movie. It is NOT the sedate action of the series, but intense, James Bond-style action. This movie is billed as an action comedy, not a comedy. It follows the typical Hollywood formula of trying to make up for a poor script with special effects and action scenes. Unfortunately, much of the humor in the movie is crass and crude, with the subtlety of Al Sharpton. Expect to see vomit jokes, ass jokes, and scatological humor throughout the movie. There's also a lot of food humor, as they're playing Max as someone who was formerly fat, so he is constantly snacking and eating energy bars in the movie. The movie is really Tommy Boy as a spy.

Given the casting of Carell and the quality of the producers and director, I was hoping for a funny, biting, parody that would energize the fanbase and perhaps create a new franchise. What I've seen is another horrible Hollywood remake, like The Honeymooners, I Spy, or Bewitched. Like the over 10,000 of you that have e-mailed me, I'm sick of bad remakes that insult our intelligence. Get Smart won two Emmy Awards as the best comedy in TV and the unbelievably positive reviews of the DVD release show how funny and well-respected the original product was. It stood out. It used superior writing, dialogue, and characterization to create laughs, not Max groaning in a bathroom. It never went for the cheap laugh, the fart joke, or the obvious Hollywood clichés.  This movie unfortunately does that way too much, like with Max and 99. Oh gee, Max meets 99 and is an idiot, 99 immediately hates him, yet magically falls in love and moves in with him by the end of the movie. Oh boy, how original. That's the kind of thing the original Get Smart parodied brilliantly. To see it reduced to following those clichés is sad to me, especially when it could be so much more, given the quality of the cast and producers.

There is an official movie site and it has the teaser trailer posted on it. You can see another, much more extensive trailer here. For a non-Get Smart fan review of the movie you can check out Ain't It Cool News. Another review can be found at Cinematical. The first movie poster is below and you can see that it reflects a diminished, inferior Max. My guess is part of the poster's focus on Anne Hathaway instead of Steve Carell is that Carell's last two movies (Evan Almighty and Dan in Real Life) have flopped badly at the box office, leading many (Business Week and USA Today for two) to question if Carell can be a leading man in the movies. I'm sure the studio is now very worried about how this movie will open, especially since extremely knowledgable industry insiders have told me that it is not tracking as well as expected. It's opening against a new Mike Meyers movie, The Love Guru, which is generating much more positive buzz.

Test showings of the movie took place in December and it received mixed reviews. That might be considered a positive, as the movie had received a tremendous amount of bad buzz, mostly about it being an inferior script. The Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, and Deadline Hollywood were among the publications reporting negatively on the movie. Several actresses also turned down the role of 99 because they didn't believe in the script. The script is also disturbingly familiar in concept to Johnny English and is far more a remake of Fox's vision of Get Smart with Andy Dick and Elaine Hendrix than the original series. I can also state that I have heard from several screenwriters who are very familiar with the original Get Smart and quality comedy and they were not happy with the quality of the script as well. It's also personally satisfying to me to see that the movie is following the script that was first reviewed here, despite many who tried to negate my early opinions and impugn my character by claiming I had a fake script.

By far the greatest sin performed by the movie was their attempt to deny that Mel Brooks and Buck Henry created Get Smart. In a purely financial move dictated by studio lawyers, they claimed that Mel and Buck created the show as a "work-for-hire" for Talent Associates, and therefore did not deserve credit or any financial compensation for their participation. The legal eagles behind this move forbid any contact between the movie's creative team and Stern, Brooks, or Henry. When the movie began shooting on March 21st, this edict was still in effect. Then, on April 11th, Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere released this story as a rumor substantiated by a very reliable anonymous source. The negative backlash was immediate and intense. Within 48 hours of Wells' bombshell, the lawsuit was dropped and Warner Brothers signed a deal with Mel and Buck to be "creative consultants" to the movie. However, the script had been completed and over three weeks of principal photography had been completed, so their input was not major, nor did they have any say in the creation of the script or the movie, as there was NO CONTACT between the original creative team and the movie's creative team until April 12th at the earliest. It's a shame that a ridiculous legal fight (not endorsed by the movie's creative team) to increase the studio's profits stood in the way of allowing Stern, Brooks, and Henry the chance to consult before the major characterizations and plot points were established shooting started. I firmly believe that if there wasn't such a negative backlash about their ignoring the original creative team, including the 10,000+ of you who signed my online petition, that none of this would have come about. I find it fascinating to suddenly hear the "new" history of this movie's creation, which includes a completely different attitude towards the original and its creators, as they backpedal quicker than Bill Clinton after they found Monica's stained dress. It's also funny to hear Segal claim that The Bourne Identity showed him that the jeopardy CONTROL faces must be real in order for the comedy to work, as if that was a new invention. Those are points Leonard Stern has consistently made about the series and one of the first thing he has shared about the series' success in multiple interviews over the year and it should be obvious to anyone with a background in comedy who actually watched the original series.

Before this backlash, Peter Segal clearly had very little respect for the original series, calling it a "silly Cold War comedy" that needed serious updating. He also brutally mis-read the character of 99, implying she was a shallow, submissive and ditzy female. You'll note that the press release announcing the movie's production has NO MENTION of Brooks, Henry or Stern, despite listing over 25 people involved in the movie. Segal also gave an exclusive, start-of-production interview to USA Today and he also makes zero mention of Brooks, Henry, or Stern again. Would these omissions have been made if Mel Brooks were deeply involved with the movie as they now claim? Of course not! In addition, anonymous sources (read: publicists) were all over movie boards and chats insulting the original creative team and claiming they were "too old and out of touch" to know what was funny and that their input wasn't needed. It was quite clear that this negative publicity towards the original was coming from movie sources. I think they grossly underestimated the respect generated by Brooks, Henry, and Stern and the enormous negative backlash clearly has them backpedaling furiously. They've gone from not needing their input to trumpeting their cooperation. Hell, if I had a dime for every time Segal dropped Mel Brooks' name at ComiCon and in recent publicity, I'd be financing my own, much better remake. It's clear that the negative buzz generated by an inferior script and their original snubbing of the creative team, combined with the poor box office generated by Evan Almighty, has everyone worried about the box office Get Smart will generate. That's why you now are seeing these puff pieces where everybody now is claiming that the movie and everything in it has been given the seal of approval from Leonard, Mel, and Buck (though have you heard a single public statement from any of them?). It's why they desperately tried to get a Mel Brooks cameo in the movie. It's quite a different story from what they were saying when production on this movie began, but it's gratifying to hear this turnaround. However, let's be quite clear - this movie's concept was created and written WITHOUT ANY INPUT from the original creative team. Despite what publicists are trying to get you to believe, this movie will feature Pete Segal's Get Smart, not Mel Brooks', Leonard Stern's, or Buck Henry's. It will be up to you to decide whether Segal's version has the same style, class, and wit that characterized the original.

Spoiler-Free Mini-Summary: Maxwell  Smart is a nerdy analyst for CONTROL who dreams of being a successful agent, like Agent 23. When KAOS manages to wipe out most of CONTROL, the Chief is forced to promote Max to agent, where he is teamed up with the experienced, "kick-ass" Agent 99. KAOS is smuggling nuclear weapons into the U.S. and Max and 99 must prevent Siegfried and Shtarker from using the weapons. Along the way, Max and 99 constantly bicker and then fall in love. As you might expect, Max makes some mistakes and ends up branded a double agent by the Chief. Max convinces his nerdy analyst friends that he's not a double agent and they help him get the goods on Siegfried and KAOS. Max saves the day and ends up with 99 and a job as an agent.

Carell wisely is not planning to duplicate Don Adams' portrayal of Max, but his Max will have a similar cadence, as you can see from the trailers. The nerdy, formerly fat analyst portion of Max will be disturbing to many of you, as it was to me. Max is convinced he's brilliant and would not be wracked with doubts and behave like a drunken frat boy. The movie's 99 is hyper-violent, aggressive, and domineering. She constantly belittles Max for his inexperience and mistakes. A perfect example of the neutered, slighted, and undetermined character of Max is in the first movie poster above. Max's overshadowed, insecure, and nerdy character plays second fiddle to uber-fem 99. They're not a team and Max isn't a strong character who believes he can do no wrong - he's an insecure nerd desperately trying to get recognition and attention from domineering 99. Doesn't the poster tell you exactly what kind of humor to expect? A stupid, incompetent Max belittled by a steroidal 99. Have you ever before seen a movie poster that hides the face of the lead character?

More News and Notes

First, let's note that this site is dedicated to the original Get Smart, not any remakes, and so I won't be providing the latest links to posters, trailers, and the like. I'll leave that to movie sites that are willing to change their opinions in order to receive favors from "the industry." It's my goal to provide enough information on the remake so that Get Smart fans can make their own choice about whether or not to attend, not serve as a publicity shill for a project that I don't believe in.

A mere ten days after Get Smart opens in theaters, Warner Brothers will release Get Smarter: Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control on DVD. This will feature the two nerdy analyst friends of Max in their own "comedy." This is part of what may become a new trend of capitalizing on big-budget features with small budget direct-to-DVD features. At least, that's what they hope to happen if both movies are successful. This movie was also written by the same writing team that wrote the Get Smart script and their lack of originality shows again with the similar title to Dumb and Dumberer. I haven't seen the script to this one, and I don't want to see it, but it explains a lot about why the approach of having Max be a nerdy analyst worked so well for the producers - it gives them an instant sequel. As with the idiotic comic books based on the original series, this creation is something that I'm not considering part of Get Smart and so it won't be reported upon by this site.

There's a tendency among many in Hollywood that a funny actor can make a bad script funny, and so you'll often see great comedic stars in unfunny movies (remember The Three Amigos or Steve Martin in The Pink Panther?). Though it sometimes can happen that a great comic can make a bad script funny, why not try and give him the best possible script? Unfortunately, this isn't the best possible script, but Steve Carell is hot and the window to make this movie was short given Carell's other commitments, so the movie may have been scheduled before the script was as good as it should be. I've seen several versions of the script and have been less than impressed with any of the versions. Unfortunately, what I've read feels more like another cheesy Hollywood remake than a Get Smart movie. Let me make this clear - I AM NOT opposed to a Get Smart movie and I would have loved to see a modern re-invention of the concept and its characters that is also funny. I also realize that the concept and its characters can't be exactly the same as the TV series. However, above all else, a Get Smart movie must be funny and satirical. Though there are some laughs in the script, they're of the Tommy Boy variety, not subtle or sophisticated at all. There's not even a hint of satire in it. I've been told by people associated with the movie that I'm "out of it" for insisting that the movie have the same quality of humor as the original and I think it's important for me to state that I'm not looking for humor that is exactly the same at all. I'm looking for high-quality humor, which is possible at any time. The original series won two Emmy Awards as the best comedy of its time - I guarantee you this movie will not win any Academy or Golden Globes Awards as the best comedy of its time.

There's also a lot of R-rated language in this movie. I'm not a prude, but foul language should not substitute for the lack of quality writing. It's easy to show anger by saying, "f- you," then finding a line that expresses that anger, but that's why they call people writers. I think it's pretty sad that the clip they showed at ComiCon featured vomit jokes, but I'm not surprised, as scatological humor permeates this script.

    Hollywood judges success by whether or not a movie makes money and given the cast, I'm sure it will make money, at least in the opening weekend. I judge success as something more than making money (call me idealistic and naive) and remaking Get Smart isn't like remaking The Dukes of Hazzard, as Get Smart has a track record of critical acclaim and major awards. Hollywood's track record of TV show remakes is pretty pathetic (The Honeymooners, Bewitched, Sgt. Bilko, among many). Just as the TV show's quality set it apart from the pack, I had hoped that the movie's quality would set it apart from the ordinary dreck like Tommy Boy and Failure to Launch that make money but leave no lasting impression. If they had just consulted Stern, Henry and Brooks at the start instead of mocking them and trying to take their earned money and credit, maybe it could have reached that lofty level of a movie to be preserved. There's an audience out there that's desperate for quality comedy and this was a great chance to provide that. It's like waiting for the new Beatles album and getting one fromYoko Ono.

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