John Mulaney Is in Talks to Lead a New Get Smart at Warner Bros.
John Mulaney is in talks to star in a new version of Get Smart, the spy comedy, and he has started talking about it in public. He discussed the reboot at the premiere of Madden, the John Madden biopic in which he also appears, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The project is in early development at Warner Bros. The studio has not announced a deal, so Mulaney's casting remains a matter of talks. Seth Grahame-Smith is writing the screenplay. Charles Roven and Andrew Lazar are producing.
Get Smart began as a 1960s television comedy created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. Don Adams played Maxwell Smart, a bumbling secret agent who was far better at talking his way out of trouble than fighting his way through it. The series built a loyal following, and the franchise has been returning to screens ever since.
The most recent big-screen version arrived in 2008. Steve Carell played Smart opposite Anne Hathaway and Dwayne Johnson, and the film collected $230 million worldwide. A sequel was once in development, but that plan was later dropped. Warner Bros. now has a fresh shot at the character, and a new lead would be the first to take the role on the big screen since Carell.
Mulaney's own schedule is busy this autumn. In Madden, directed by David O. Russell, he plays Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts, the video game company behind the Madden football series. Nicolas Cage plays Madden himself, and Christian Bale plays Raiders owner Al Davis. The film is opening in a limited number of cinemas and begins streaming on Prime Video on November 18.
For fans of both Mulaney and the original show, the pairing is an easy one to picture. Smart's whole act depends on a character who is sure of himself and almost always wrong, a shape that suits a comedian known for fast, self-aware delivery. Whether that idea reaches the screen will depend on the talks, the script and the studio's plans for a release date, none of which has been set.
Projects in early development often change shape or stall before cameras roll. For now, the news is that a familiar spy has a possible new face and a writer, and that the studio is still building the film around him.
