Tagline: Saving the World… And Loving It.
Get Smart movie storyline. Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is on a mission to thwart the latest plot for world domination by the evil crime syndicate known as KAOS. When the headquarters of U.S. spy agency Control is attacked and the identities of its agents compromised, the Chief (Alan Arkin) has no choice but to promote his ever-eager analyst Maxwell Smart, who has always dreamt of working in the field alongside stalwart superstar Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson).
Smart is partnered instead with the lovely-but-lethal veteran Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). Given little field experience and even less time, Smart–armed with nothing but a few spy-tech gadgets and his unbridled enthusiasm–must thwart the doomsday plans of KAOS head Siegfried (Terance Stamp).
When the headquarters of U.S. spy agency Control is attacked and the identities of its agents compromised, the Chief (Alan Arkin) has no choice but to promote his ever-eager analyst Maxwell Smart, who has always dreamt of working in the field alongside stalwart superstar Agent 23 (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). Smart is partnered instead with the only other agent whose identity has not been compromised: the lovely-but-lethal veteran Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway).
As Smart and 99 get closer to unraveling KAOS’ master plan-and each other-they discover that key KAOS operative Siegfried (Terence Stamp) and his sidekick Shtarker are scheming to cash in with their network of terror. Given little field experience and even less time, Smart-armed with nothing but a few spy-tech gadgets and his enthusiasm-must defeat KAOS if he is to save the day.
About The Production
It’s Agent Maxwell Smart’s first day on the job and the fate of the free world has never been in more capable hands. “Would you believe?…”
Director Peter Segal approached “Get Smart” as both a filmmaker and a fan. “This was an iconic show from the 1960s, a true classic and one of my favorites,” he says. “I loved it. It was smart, irreverent and hilarious.”
Says producer Charles Roven, “We didn’t want to recreate it but to contemporize it— to make it work for our time with a modern perspective and action sequences that aren’t only there to punctuate the laughs but are worthy of any thriller. We wanted to bring this world of super-spies into a new era with the scale and scope it truly deserves on the big screen.”
Segal discovered that just imagining the familiar characters and some brand new ones in today’s headline-worthy situations sparked a thousand ideas and jokes, inspired by the same savvy humor that made the series—the brainchild of comedy mavericks Mel Brooks and Buck Henry—so memorable.
“Our goal was to embrace the spirit of what Mel and Buck created and bring it to a new generation. The movie pays homage to the touchstones of the series; its irreverence, political satire and some of the catchphrases that are now part of our culture,” says Segal, “but with a fresh story, a 2008 point of view and a style and energy all its own. The idea was to make a movie that offers as much to new viewers as longtime fans and, bottom line, to just make it funny as hell so it doesn’t matter if you know the history or not.”
Producer Alex Gartner credits Segal with “the ability to blend smart comedy [pun intended] with serious action, neither of which is easy and certainly not easily meshed, but it’s something at which Peter excels and why we wanted him to direct. There’s a lot of physical humor here, but played against a realistic backdrop.”
Steve Carell, who stars as Maxwell Smart and also serves as an executive producer, sums it up this way: “I’d say it’s 80% comedy, 20% action, 15% heart, 35% romance, 10% adventure and probably less than 1% horror. Put that all together and you have more than 100%, which is more, really, than you can expect from any movie.”
Not surprisingly, notes producer Andrew Lazar, “Steve Carell as Max was the most important part of the puzzle in putting this project together. His involvement triggered everything and his ideas about how to play the character informed the entire piece.”
“What first attracted me to the project was Steve,” acknowledges Segal, who committed on the strength of Carell’s casting even before seeing a script. “In my mind, there was no one else who could do justice to this role, and if you don’t have the right Max it’s not worth doing.”
“We were able to tailor the script to Steve’s immense comedic talent, which gave us free range to take it to places other people might not be able to go,” offers producer Michael Ewing. “Together with screenwriters Tom Astle and Matt Ember, Peter and Steve worked on developing the character, as well as some of the plot points.” Bringing with him a wealth of improv experience honed during his days with the famed Second City, Carell often brainstormed with the filmmakers and his fellow actors to come up with alternate jokes and angles on a scene.
Swiss Army Knife with a flamethrower attachment… What, you don’t have one of these? “It wouldn’t be a spy story without gadgets,” says Roven. “The show was famous for its gadgets and we have a lot of them,” Segal avows, noting that the film pays homage to certain old-school props while introducing a number of equally improbable gizmos to help our heroes meet the modern challenges of surveillance, communication and destruction—although not necessarily in that order.
“The shoe phone will make an appearance and the Cone of Silence is back in a new 2008 design, as well as cutting-edge equipment that spies like Max and 99 would need,” he says. “As hard as it is to believe in this day and age when every kid has a cell phone, the shoe phone was an amazing concept in the 1960s; the very idea of mobile communication then was really ahead of its time. Taking off your shoe and putting it to your ear to take a call doesn’t seem so innovative now but, c’mon, how can you make a ‘Get Smart’ movie without it? It’s such a definitive image, we figured out a fun way to work it in.”
Also, several distinctive sports cars from the series will make drive-on cameos. Fans will spot the red Sunbeam Tiger, the gold Opel GT and the blue Karmann Ghia. Property master Tim Wiles met with renowned Hollywood memorabilia collector Danny Biederman to examine some of the show’s original props, including the shoe phone, that have become icons of American pop culture and were recently on display as part of the Treasures of Hollywood exhibit at Washington, DC’s International Spy Museum.
Like kids with toys, there is always an undercurrent of rivalry among the field agents when it comes to the gadgets they employ, each trying to one-up his colleagues with the latest-and-greatest and a casually dropped, “What? You don’t have this?” Soon after Max demonstrates his radiation-detector wristwatch, 99 coolly reveals a roll of explosive dental floss; later, following 99’s introduction of a molar-mounted radio, Max breaks out the cufflink bombs.
Other debuting items from CONTROL’s fantastic crime-fighting arsenal are a pocket compact smokescreen and Max’s specially equipped Swiss Army knife that includes, beyond its standard attachments, a flame thrower, a blow gun and a miniature titanium-threaded grappling hook.
With all this state-of-the-art equipment being tossed around, veteran producer Leonard Stern wouldn’t be surprised if the Feds came calling…again. With a trace of decades-old incredulity, he recalls how he and his production team were actually approached by the FBI in the series’ heyday with questions about how they happened to come up with some of the devices featured on the show. “Apparently some of our creations were close enough to reality, and it was unnerving to them at the time to think that comedy writers could just dream this stuff up.”
Finally, new and dedicated fans alike will be glad to see that some things never change. Says Wiles, “The Cone of Silence is now completely digital, with a sophisticated hand-held activation system and multiple ports.” Still, even after 40 years of Research & Development, fans would probably be disappointed if it actually worked.
Incorporating familiar favorites while propelling spy-tech gadgetry into a new century exemplifies the kind of balance Segal and the filmmaking team sought overall in bringing “Get Smart” to the big screen.
Continue Reading and View the Theatrical Trailer
Get Smart (2008)
Directed by: Peter Segal
Starring: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp, Terry Crews, David Koechner, James Caan, Masi Oka, Nate Torrence, Patrick Warburton, Ken Davitian, David S. Lee
Screenplay by: Tom J. Astle, Matt Ember
Production Design by: Wynn Thomas
Cinematography by: Dean Semler
Film Editing by: Richard Pearson
Costume Design by: Deborah Scott
Set Decoration by: Suzanne Cloutier,Paul Hotte, Leslie E. Rollins
Art Direction by: Christopher Burian-Mohr, Martin Gendron
Music by: Trevor Rabin
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some rude humor, action violence and language.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: June 20, 2008
Views: 95
