John Mulaney in Early Talks to Lead Warner Bros.' Get Smart Reimagining
John Mulaney is in early talks to star in a Get Smart reimagining at Warner Bros., with Seth Grahame-Smith writing the screenplay, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The project is in early development. Charles Roven and Andrew Lazar are attached as producers. No release date, director, or additional cast has been announced.
Get Smart began life as a Cold War spy spoof created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, debuting on NBC in 1965 and running for five seasons. Don Adams starred as Maxwell Smart, the bumbling secret agent armed with a shoe-phone and unshakable confidence, with Barbara Feldon and Edward Platt rounding out the cast. The series ran for 138 episodes across NBC and CBS before ending in 1970.
The property has been revived before. Peter Segal directed a 2008 feature film starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway and Dwayne Johnson. That film collected $230 million globally at the worldwide box office — a solid, if not blockbuster, return for a comedy based on a four-decade-old television series.
For Mulaney, the Get Smart talks arrive in the middle of an already deep relationship with Warner Bros. The comedian reupped his overall deal with the studio — a contract that keeps his television projects within the Warner Bros. system — and recently hosted, wrote and executive produced Everybody's in L.A., a six-night live show on Netflix. His earlier television work includes a 2013 ensemble comedy pilot that he created, wrote and starred in, loosely based on his own life.
Grahame-Smith's screenplay credit spans novels and screenplays that blend comedy with genre material. His 2009 novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies became a feature film, and he has worked on scripts including The Lego Batman Movie and Dark Shadows. A spy spoof reimagining sits squarely in that wheelhouse.
The word "reimagining" is doing some work here. It signals that the new film will not be a straightforward remake of either the original series or the 2008 Carell vehicle. What shape the story takes — period piece, modern-set, leaned into action or played as farce — remains under wraps, and the project's early-development status means those decisions are likely still being made.
Talks are talks. Mulaney has not signed on, and early-development projects at major studios frequently change shape before cameras roll — or stall entirely. But the combination is an attention-grabbing one: a stand-up comedian known for precision and persona, a writer fluent in genre-bending comedy, and a producer in Roven whose credits range from The Dark Knight trilogy to Oppenheimer. For a property built on the premise that the spy genre is ripe for parody, the pieces fit.
