Don Adams Tagged Articles at Cinematical

As a long time fan of the original TV show, and as a grown up version of the kid who used to memorize William Johnston's paperbacks ... as a former elementary school student who went in for as many tedious "Would you believe?" jokes as the legions of film critics writing about this week's box office success ... as all of these things, I'm not expecting anything more heart-breaking this summer than Get Smart. From the under-performing villain (the usually savory Terence Stamp) to the dull direction by Peter Segal, the film was a complete tick-off.

Richard Schickel spelled out his own disappointment in the opening paragraph of his review in Time Magazine:

"A schlemiel may be, must be, grievously acted upon by the always malevolent world. But he can never be permitted to act effectively against that world. At the end of his adventures he must, somehow, triumph over the forces of darkness that surround him - but only accidentally so...In that spirit of genial fantasy, we permit out surrogate that utter self-confidence, that sublime sangfroid, with which with he cheerfully motors his way around and through disaster."

It had been awhile since we heard anything about the Get Smart movie, and I was kinda hoping that it wasn't actually being made. But as Erik reported almost a year ago, Steve Carrell is in fact bringing Maxwell Smart to the big screen in an adaptation directed by Peter Segal and written by Matt Ember & Tom J. Astle. Now Agent 86 might have a partner, as Anne Hathaway is about to be cast in the role of Agent 99. And production is set to begin in March, just as soon as Carrell is done shooting the current season of The Office, which picks up in January after the actor finishes up on Dan in Real Life (the guy apparently never takes a vacation).

With both Mel Brooks and Buck Henry still alive, I can't believe that this movie could really be written by a duo other than them -- not that I think they'd write it. I just simply can't imagine that it will have any of the zany tone that the TV show had. That said, I am pretty happy with the casting so far. I can't think of a better pair than Carrell and Hathaway to play the characters originated by Don Adams and Barbara Feldon, respectively. They better not mess it up with whoever they get for The Chief.

I guess there's not much chance of the movie being as bad as the '90s Get Smart series starring Andy Dick (and Adams and Feldon) nor could it be as awful as the Inspector Gadget movie (the cartoon was like a spin-off of Get Smart and featured Adams' voice).