Get Smart Reboot: John Mulaney Circling Maxwell Smart Role in New Movie.

John Mulaney Could Become the New Maxwell Smart as Get Smart Movie Reboot Takes Shape

One of television's classic spy comedies is being prepared for another big-screen mission.

John Mulaney is circling the role of Maxwell Smart in a new Get Smart movie reboot. The project remains at an early stage, with Seth Grahame-Smith attached to write and Andrew Lazar and Chuck Roven producing.

Why Mulaney Is an Interesting Choice

Maxwell Smart needs an unusual balance.

The character is part secret agent and part comic disaster: confident enough to believe he belongs in dangerous situations while frequently being the least conventionally competent person in the room.

Mulaney's dry delivery and ability to make absurdity sound completely logical could make him an interesting fit for that comic contradiction.

A Reboot With Significant History

The original television series, created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, debuted in 1965 and turned the conventions of Cold War espionage into comedy.

Hollywood previously revived the property in 2008 with Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson and Alan Arkin. That version earned approximately $230 million worldwide, demonstrating that the underlying concept could translate to contemporary audiences.

A new version, however, will need more than brand recognition.

Spy movies themselves have changed dramatically, and spy parody has changed with them. The strongest opportunity may be to make the new Get Smart comment on today's hyper-surveillance, technology-heavy intelligence world rather than simply reproduce jokes from an earlier era.

If Mulaney ultimately signs, his casting could provide exactly the distinctive comic voice such a reinvention requires.

BY

SUYASH PACHAURI,

FOUNDER & OWNER,

GLOBAL BOLLYWOOD | THE HOLLYWOOD SCOPE