Source: Variety

January 17, 2007

DDwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Terence Stamp are set to join Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway in "Get Smart."
Shooting begins next month on the Peter Segal-directed comedy for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures.

While the comedy is based on the 1965 Mel Brooks/Buck Henry-created sitcom, the Rock will play the newly created character Agent 23. Stamp will play an evil leader.

Tom Astle and Matt Ember wrote the script.

Andrew Lazar, Charles Roven and Alex Gartner are producing the pic, which is a co-production between Mosaic Media Group, Mad Chance and Callahan Filmworks.

The Rock, who last starred in Sony's "Gridiron Gang," next will be seen in the Disney comedy "The Game Plan." Stamp just wrapped the Christopher Cain-directed "September Dawn."

"Get Smart" will shoot in L.A., D.C. and Moscow, starting Feb. 3 and wrapping in July. Segal said the premise has been contemporized, but they have managed to retain such sitcom touchstones as the "cone of silence," the shoe phone and the original cars driven by Smart.

"What made the original unique was it took place in the Cold War era and skewered the political landscape," Segal said. "We're trying to embrace that spirit, and there is certainly a lot to skewer politically today."