Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony winner Mel Brooks is the subject of a new two-part documentary that will premiere on HBO Max later this month.
Entitled Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!, the film from directors Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio will debut January 22-23 on the streaming network.
The film features new interviews with Brooks, as well as the comics he has inspired, including Ben Stiller, Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Nick Kroll, Patton Oswalt, Dave Chappelle, Conan O’Brien, Josh Gad, Jimmy Kimmel, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, and Tracey Ullman; filmmakers Robert Townsend, Peter Farrelly, Jerry and David Zucker, Barry Levinson, David Lynch, and the late Rob Reiner; actors Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, Cary Elwes, Matthew Broderick, and Nathan Lane; Brooks’ children Stefanie, Nicolas, Eddie, and Max; and granddaughter Samantha.
In The 99 Year Old Man!, Brooks says, "I was born to make people laugh, so I do that." Get a sneak peek at the film in the trailer below:
While working in the Borscht Belt and the dawning era of television, alongside Sid Caesar, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbert, and Carl Reiner, Brooks laid the foundation for modern sketch comedy and created his indelible character “The 2000 Year Old Man.”
He won his first Oscar in 1964 for writing and narrating the animated short The Critic and his second for the screenplay of his first feature film, The Producers, in 1968. Many hit comedies followed, including Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It.
Brooks received three 2001 Tony Awards for The Producers, which ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2006. The stage adaptation of his movie holds the record for the most Tonys ever won by a Broadway production. He followed that success with Young Frankenstein, which ran on Broadway from 2007 to 2009 and opened in London’s West End in fall 2017. In 2009, Brooks received a Kennedy Center Honor, and in 2013 he was the 41st recipient of the AFI’s Life Achievement Award. In 2016, President Obama presented him with The National Medal of Arts.
The first major West End revival of The Producers continues at London's Garrick Theatre.