John Mulaney is looking to Get Smart with his next project.
According to Deadline, Mulaney is eyeing to star as Control agent Maxwell Smart in Warner Bros.‘ upcoming reimagining of Get Smart. If cast, he would succeed Don Adams and Steve Carell in the role.
The project is in early development at the studio. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t scribe Seth Grahame-Smith is penning the screenplay.
The original Get Smart was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. The spy comedy series ran for 138 episodes from 1965 to 1970. The first four seasons aired on NBC, while the final season was shown on CBS.
Get Smart was a parody of the spy genre, particularly the James Bond films. The series centered around Adams’ bumbling know-it-all agent Maxwell Smart (Agent 86), Barbara Feldon’s mysterious Agent 99, and Edward Platt’s the Chief, all of whom worked for the secret U.S. government counterintelligence agency, CONTROL, which was in a constant battle with the evil organization KAOS.
After Get Smart ended, the series was revived a decade later with the 1980 feature film, The Nude Bomb, which was made without Brooks and Henry, as well as the 1989 made-for-TV sequel to the series, Get Smart, Again!, which starred Adams and Feldon.
A 1995 revival series starring Adams, Feldon, Andy Dick, Heather Morgan, and Elaine Hendrix was also made, although it was short-lived. It aired on Fox for just seven episodes in early 1995.
Younger generations may know Get Smart from the 2008 feature film reboot, which Warner Bros. was also behind. It starred Carell as Smart, Anne Hathaway as Agent 99, Alan Arkin as the Chief, and Dwayne Johnson as Agent 23. The comedy movie was a modest box office hit, and while there were sequel talks, nothing ever materialized.
As for Mulaney, Get Smart would serve as his biggest film role to date. The comedian is largely known for his comedy specials and television appearances, such as Saturday Night Live. He will appear in Amazon MGM Studios’ upcoming David O. Russell feature Madden, starring Nicolas Cage as the famed football coach and NFL commentator.
Do you agree that Mulaney is a dead-ringer for Maxwell Smart? Who should play Agent 99?
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