Warner Bros. and Peter Segal Doing Jonny Quest? Supermax Now Titled Green Arrow
IESB speculates that director Peter Segal, currently attached to helm a Shazam feature for Warner Bros., might also be the man who brings the studio’s planned tentpole, Jonny Quest, to the world as well for Summer ‘09. Apparently the script by Dan Mazeau is quite strong and in better shooting condition than Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam. Moroever, the site spoke to Segal recently, who was enthusiastic about the latest screenplay, noted his involvement with getting a Quest flick off the ground in the past, and even discussed casting preferences (The Rock for special agent Roger “Race” Bannon). As you might recall, for over a year now Dwayne Johnson has been attached to play Shazam’s Black Adam.
At the center of the Jonny Quest franchise is the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, about the titular young boy, his scientist father, his adopted Indian brother, a spastic bulldog, and a snowy haired special agent/bodyguard who hop around the globe pursuing epic cryptozoological and sci-fi adventures. Quest is one of several retro tentpole projects on Hollywood’s burner, including Buck Rogers, Spielberg/Jackson’s Tintin, the now filming Transformers 2, and another live-action He-Man flick (also buzzing loudly at Warner Bros.). Of course, the recent wipe-out of the similarly cheeky/mothballed Speed Racer is no doubt being taken into consideration when updating Quest.
Also of note: David Goyer’s Supermax, which now looks to have broader box office potential after the success of Iron Man, has been retitled Green Arrow. The well-reviewed script, which sees Green Arrow facing off in a high security prison with DC villains like The Riddler, is by Justin Marks, who wrote the aforemenioned He-Man script that’s driving the Internet nuts right now.
Get Smart Secrets Revealed
Things nearly got bloody as Anne Hathaway tussled with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson on the set of the upcoming Get Smart movie.
The two were shooting a fight scene when Hathaway accidentally kicked Johnson in the head with the heel of her shoe, according to the film's director, Peter Segal.
"The stunt coordinator was saying, 'Her foot will come within six inches of your face, but from this angle it will look like it connects,' ” Segal told me earlier today. “Dwayne started to say, ‘This looks closer than six inches. Are you sure she’s going to be able to pull her kick in time so she doesn’t hit me?’ The stunt coordinator said, ‘Oh, yeah; everything’s fine.' "
Luckily, Johnson wasn't hurt. “Anne was mortified and so apologetic, but he milked it,” Segal said. “He painted little bruises on his forehead and came up to her later and pretended that he was wounded.”
Hathaway also connected with costar Steve Carell. But in a much different sort of way.
"Anne is such a sick, crazy Office fan,” Segal said. “I swear to God, she knows every line from every episode. She insisted on auditioning even though we said, ‘No, it’s not really necessary.’ But then at the moment she sat down next to Steve, he started ad-libbing a little bit and then she started ad-libbing to catch up with him, and before long, I found myself feverishly writing notes of what they were saying. Later on after we hired her and we were shooting the movie, we shot a lot of those ad-libs.” (Segal promises the audition tape will be part of the eventual DVD release.)
Now about Maxwell Smart’s famous shoe phone. “At the time, the shoe phone was the coolest thing in the world,” Segal says of the original 1960s television series created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. “We didn’t have cordless phones, let alone cell phones. So now the thought of somebody actually putting a shoe to their face is kind of disgusting. But we did talk to Apple about possibly making a screen saver for iPhones. It would look like the bottom of a shoe.”
Mel Brooks on Get Smart
The Los Angeles Times has an interesting interview with Get Smart creator (and did I mention comic genius) Mel Brooks. Here are a couple highlights:
“Someone called me up and said, ‘They’re making a movie of ‘Get Smart.’’ I said, ‘Oh, really? What are they going to call it?’ They said, ‘’Get Smart.’’ I said, ‘That was wise.’ Because they did do a movie based on ‘Get Smart’ about 20 years ago called ‘The Nude Bomb’. I said, ‘That’s foolish.’ … I had nothing to do with it. They never even called me! This one, they called me from Day One. They said, “What do you think of this?” Or “What do you think of that?” And I’d say yay or nay. … It’s got a good director, Peter Segal. Wonderful director. The writers were great. The producers were young and aggressive and smart. But the brilliance is Steve Carell. To choose a guy who’s right in the Don Adams groove. You couldn’t get a better guy than Steve Carell. And yet he doesn’t do Don Adams. He does none of his delivery. He just does Steve Carell.”
You can read the full interview on LATimes.com.
Get Smart Video Clip Premieres at Comic Con
Director Peter Segal, stars Steve Carell, The Rock, Masi Oka, Ken Davitian, and Nate Torrence were in attendance to debut the first video clips from the big screen adaptation of Get Smart during the Friday morning Warner Bros panel at Comic-Con 2007.
The clip begins with a voiceover telling us that “There has always been a delicate balance between Kaos and Control. Now with that balance threatened, its time to turn to one man. Cut to Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart. Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 comes up to him from behind with a gun and shouts “Freeze!” Carell replies “No you freeze” “What? You can’t do that?” We then see a montage of humorous clips including but not limited to Smart’s car stalling while he’s on a mission. Agent 99 and Smart running down the street, climbing through air-ducts, crashing into a building, a fight in control headquarters. We got a few glimpses of Ken Davitian and The Rock in action. Max and 99 are in a closet at a party:
“Did you see anything while i was dancing,” Agent 99 asks.
“Just once but i didn’t expect them to lift you so high,” replies Smart.
The clip finishes with Smart in a jet fighter puking while it does a barrel roll.
The crowd laughed out loud a bunch of times during the clip. I predict that this film could be the next Austin Powers and really take off huge. It has that potential. And for fans of the classic tv series, it looks like they are doing this thing right. They revealed that both Hymie the robot and Agent 13 are in the movie.
“I got to wear clothes [in this movie]” commented Ken Davitian, who was of course very naked in Borat.
“Thank god,” quickly snapped The Rock, who in this film plays Maxwell Smart’s mentor, a character that was not featured in the television series.