EXCLUSIVE: Talk about a dead ringer when it comes to casting: We’re getting word that 4x Emmy winner John Mulaney is eyeing to star in Warner Bros’ upcoming reimagining of Get Smart as wisenheimer agent Maxwell Smart.
The project is early in the works with Now You See Me: Now You Don’t scribe Seth Grahame-Smith penning the screenplay. Chuck Rovan and Andrew Lazar are producing.
The spy comedy TV series Get Smart was originally created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry and ran from 1965-1970 for 138 episodes. The first four seasons aired on NBC, while the final season was shown on CBS. Get Smart was a spoof of the James Bond films. Don Adams starred as bumbling know-it-all agent Maxwell Smart (Agent 86) opposite Barbara Feldon (Agent 99) and Edward Platt who played the Chief. They work for a secret U.S. government counterintelligence agency called Control, which was in a constant battle with evil org, Kaos. While Smart always has the upper hand over Kaos, he was often incompetent. The series won seven Emmys including two for Outstanding Comedy Series.
The opening sequence was a classic showing Adams’ Smart walking through a ridiculous amount of locked barricades before arriving at a phone booth, in which he picked up the phone, dialed a number, before dropping into headquarters. The series was followed by a 1980 feature film, The Nude Bomb, which was made without Brooks and Henry as well as the 1989 made-for-TV sequel to the series, Get Smart, Again! which starred Adams and Feldon. For a beat there was a 1995 revival series that aired on Fox for seven episodes from Jan. 8 to Feb. 19, 1995 which starred Adams, Feldon, Andy Dick, Heather Morgan, and Elaine Hendrix. Then there was a 2008 feature film adaptation from Warner Bros., produced by Roven and Lazar, and starring Steve Carell as Smart, Anne Hathaway as Agent 99, Alan Arkin as the Chief, and Dwayne Johnson as Agent 23. The pic was programmed as a summer tentpole and opened to $38.6M stateside and made $130.3M domestic, and $230.6M worldwide.
Mulaney is also a Critics’ Choice Award, and WGA Award-winning writer, comedian, and actor.
This summer, the stand-up sold out the iconic Wrigley Field on July 11, becoming the first comedian ever to headline the ballpark.
Mulaney just announced Mulaney Takes Manhattan, a special nine-show New York City run that takes him to nine iconic venues over nine nights, from Comedy Cellar and Blue Note to Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall, culminating in a finale at Madison Square Garden, running Jan. 7-15, 2027. These shows are part of Mulaney’s latest stand-up tour, John Mulaney: Mister Whatever.
He has hosted Saturday Night Live six times, will next appear in the Amazon MGM Studios upcoming fall David O. Russell feature Madden starring Nicolas Cage as the famed football coach and NFL commentator.
Mulaney won Emmys for 2025 Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special (SNL: 50th Anniversary), 2023 Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special (John Mulaney: Baby J), 2018 Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special (John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City Hall) and 2011 Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics (SNL).
Grahame-Smith is repped by WME and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. He has a story credit on the Warner Bros’ hit Beetlejuice Beetlejuice which amassed more than $452M WW. He wrote Now You See Me: Now You Don’t which grossed closed to $247M at the global box office in addition to The Lego Batman Movie which minted over $312M WW.
Mulaney is repped by WME and Shreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham.
