Getting smarter with Pete Segal

One of the highlights of the Warner Bros. presentation was the panel and teaser for "Get Smart."

Steve Carell, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Masi Oka, Nate Torrence and Ken Davitian joined director Pete Segal onstage. Carell and the Rock got most of the face time on the panel, so afterward I sat down for a quick talk with the director.

Why "Get Smart"?

"There have been a lot of TV adaptations over the last decade. Some are terrible, and some are very good. And I think you have to remember that 'The Fugitive' and 'Mission: Impossible' came from TV shows," says Segal. "I think the difference in success and failure is in how close you stay to the source material."

When casting the film, Segal said he wanted to get actors that were at equal comedic and dramatic skill levels. "Suddenly you're energizing each scene with guys who can not only deliver what's on the page, but bring something else to the role." He also mentioned that Anne Hathaway in her role as Agent 99 was the most surprising actor of those cast and that her gung-ho attitude in her action-packed role will blow away audiences.  "Her enthusiasm comes across on the screen."

Favorite episode from the original show: "Loved the pilot." Segal mentioned that it was one of the two episodes that Mel Brooks (who created the show with Buck Henry) actually wrote and that it deftly explained and defined Maxwell Smart.

Favorite scene from the new movie: When Smart and Agent 99 are on a plane, rehearsing their undercover personas. Segal says that you find out that with his weight problem and her recent plastic surgery, they each had troubled pasts, and "It's there that they find common ground."

Favorite Line: By Smart -- "You've underestimated the element of supri ... "

Favorite Gadget: Old would be the shoe phone, and from the new film would be "a Swiss army knife that has a crossbow that shoots a harpoon," and many other things!

It looks fun and action-packed.

-- Jevon Phillips