The Unclassified Get Smart Site

Get Smart: The Movie
or whatever the heck they're calling it these days

The movie version of Get Smart started filming March 21, 2007 and will be shot in L.A., Montreal and Washington D.C. The movie is scheduled to be released June 20, 2008 --which is a week before my 30th birthday. Something seems rather bad-omenish about this.

This image of Steve Carell ran in the November 2005 Playboy

The cast is:

Maxwell Smart .........Steve Carell
Agent 99...................Anne Hathaway
The Chief..................Alan Arkin
Agent 23...................Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Siegfried....................Terence Stamp
Shtarker....................Ken Davitan
Bruce........................Masi Oka
Lloyd........................Nate Torrence
Larabee....................David Koechner
Agent 13..................Bill Murray
Agent 91...................Terry Crews
The Giant.................The Great Khali

Peter Segal will direct the movie. Tom Astle and Matt Ember, along with Carell and B.J. Novak have produced the finished version of the script. Producers are Andrew Lazar, Charles Roven and Alex Gartner.

    Unfortunately the GS movie has had bad buzz before filming even started. What hasn't helped is a perpetual ping-pong game of directors, writers and lead actors coming in and out of the project in the last 10 years. Check out my old timeline of movie updates to see Anne Hathaway will play Agent 99 who had their fingers in the pot.
    One of the initial hang-ups was and is the weak script --as illustrated by the trouble in getting an actress to accept the role of 99 or even negotiate. Names uttered early on for 99 included Kristina Kruek and Rachel McAdams. Two un-named A-list actresses turned the offer down after reading the script. It was not until late fall of 2006 that Hathaway signed on.
    There are a lot of little things that are particularly troublesome with the new Get Smart yarn. Maybe the biggest one is the character of 99. As it's set now, early on 99 comes across as an ice princess --not our smart and sweet 99. By the end of the show 99 and Max are making nookie.
    IMHO, 99 is going to make or break this movie. *cough* In order to build a bridge across Carell and Hathaway's mammoth age gap, 99 explains she had plastic surgery to hide her identity. Yeah... and I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell these guys.
    Max's character also has some interesting differences from the TV series. Instead of being one of Control's top agents from the start, he's a research nerd.
    Hmmmm... why is this all starting to seem like a 12-year-old boy's fantasy?
    One of the movie's big problems early on has been the lack of consultation with any of the creative forces that crafted the original Get Smart. Why you wonder? Some interesting information is at Hollywood Elsewhere A well placed spy informed the webmaster of that site that Warner Bros. tried to bamboozle Mel Brooks and Buck Henry out of credit as creators of Get Smart. According to the aforementioned website, Warner Bros.' attorneys allegedly took depositions to attempt to prove that Talent Associates came up with the concept for GS and Brooks and and Henry "served as writers for hire." *sigh* Talk about throwing all the sh*t against the wall to see what sticks.***
    Due to highly appropriate mass outrage, Warner Bros. changed its tune and dropped the suite. Brooks and Henry will be listed as creators and consultants. Leonard Stern recently visited the set and was treated rather nicely. The forces of niceness triumph over evil once more!
    Barbara Feldon will not be making a cameo appearance in the movie. Why? *shrugs* Whether that tidbit is of any significance remains to be seen. Feldon was quoted as thinking the movie is a great idea and lauded Carell and Hathaway in the June 2007 Watch! CBS magazine:

"They're both such excellent choices. In a way, I think the show was very of-its-time. But if anyone can pull it off, they can."

Alan Arkin will play The Chief But wait! There's more!
Just when we thought it was over, there's going to be a sequel. According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, Control computer geek Bruce ( Masi Oka of Heroes) and buddy Lloyd (Nate Torrence) will reprise their Get Smart roles in a direct to DVD flick: Get Smarter: Bruce & Lloyd Out of Control.
Apparently before production even started, on the Get Smart movie, Warner Bros. asked Oka to play Bruce in a separate movie. Get Smarter, made for a fraction of the cost of its parent movie, will be released 10 days after Get Smart opens in theaters. This could be incredibly amusing or incredibly stupid.

UPDATES - (September 2007) Barbara Feldon changed her mind and decided to do a cameo. O -kaaaay.

Our good friend Chief Carl has up-to-date information on his site as well as spoilers. Rumor has it he has a well placed agent on the set.

*** That's a newspaper technical term. Our next discussion will be on the virtues of slap suites.