By Ryan Parsons | Image property of Warner Bros., LA Times
Get Smart
The Los Angeles Times caught up with Mel Brooks and got the director/producer to broach a number of topics including Get Smart.
Mel Brooks Discusses Get Smart
Q: How would you describe "Get Smart" to those too young to remember the series?
A: It's an insane combination of James Bond and Mel Brooks comedy. It has a wonderful fusion and special effects and comedy, which is very rare. Usually, when you get big special effects pictures, sci-fi and things, there's little or no comedy. Or it's a domestic comedy and there's not one special effect – like "Knocked Up." But very rarely do these things fuse and come out right.
Q: A lot of your projects have been getting remade recently. Do you go to them or do they come to you?
A: It's all haphazard. Someone called me up and said, "They're making a movie of 'Get Smart.' " I said, "Oh, really? What are they going to call it?" They said, "'Get Smart.' " I said, "That was wise." Because they did do a movie based on "Get Smart" about 20 years ago called "The Nude Bomb." I said, "That's foolish."
Q: You didn't have any say in the title?
A: No, not at all. I had nothing to do with it. They never even called me! This one, they called me from Day One. They said, "What do you think of this?" Or "What do you think of that?" And I'd say yay or nay. It's got a good director, Peter Segal. Wonderful director. The writers were great. The producers were young and aggressive and smart. But the brilliance is Steve Carell. To choose a guy who's right in the Don Adams groove. You couldn't get a better guy than Steve Carell. And yet he doesn't do Don Adams. He does none of his delivery. He just does Steve Carell.
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