118-574: Maximilian Michael Brooks (born May 22, 1972) is an American author. He is the son of comedian Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft . Much of Brooks's writing focuses on zombie stories. He was a senior fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point, New York . Brooks was born on May 22, 1972, in Manhattan , New York City . He is the son of actress Anne Bancroft and actor, director, producer, and writer Mel Brooks . His father
236-449: A Random House book launch of Moss Hart ' s autobiography, Act One , at Mamma Leone's , Mel Tolkin (standing in for Carl Reiner) and Mel Brooks performed, and it was later recalled by Kenneth Tynan . Reiner played the straight-man interviewer and set Brooks up as anything from a Tibetan monk to an astronaut. As Reiner explained: "In the evening, we'd go to a party and I'd pick a character for him to play. I never told him what it
354-625: A Robin Hood parody that lasted only 13 episodes. Nearly 20 years later, in response to the 1991 hit film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves , Brooks mounted another Robin Hood parody, Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). It resurrected several pieces of dialogue from his TV series, and from earlier Brooks films. After his two hit films Brooks got a call from Ron Clark who had an audacious idea:
472-462: A bachelor's degree in history. He also attended graduate school, studying film at American University in Washington, D.C. From 2001 to 2003, Brooks was a member of the writing team at Saturday Night Live . In 2003, Brooks wrote his first book, The Zombie Survival Guide , a fictional survival manual about zombies . In 2006, Brooks wrote the follow-up World War Z: An Oral History of
590-481: A musical , which was hugely successful on Broadway and received an unprecedented 12 Tony awards. In 2000, Roger Ebert included The Producers in his canon of Great Movies, and remembered being in an elevator with Brooks and Anne Bancroft shortly after the movie was released: "A woman got on the elevator, recognized him and said, 'I have to tell you, Mr. Brooks, that your movie is vulgar.' Brooks smiled benevolently. 'Lady', he said, 'it rose below vulgarity. ' " With
708-493: A review aggregator , the film has an approval rating of 35% based on 238 reviews, and an average rating of 4.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "For a Yimou Zhang film featuring Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe battling ancient monsters, The Great Wall is neither as exciting nor as entertainingly bonkers as one might hope." On Metacritic , the film has a score of 42 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave
826-477: A Dirty Rotten Fraud was an autobiographical script based on his marriage. By 1966, Brooks was "living in a fairly old but comfortable New York town house". Brooks married actress Anne Bancroft in 1964, and they remained together for 41 years until her death in 2005. They met at a rehearsal for the Perry Como Variety Show in 1961, and were married three years later on August 5, 1964, at
944-407: A Nobel Prize–winning psychologist who suffers from " high anxiety ". By 1980, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert had referred to Mel Brooks and Woody Allen as "the two most successful comedy directors in the world today ... America's two funniest filmmakers". Released that year was the dramatic film The Elephant Man directed by David Lynch and produced by Brooks. Knowing that anyone seeing
1062-441: A battlefield ready for war, and a mysterious monster, as well as the roster views of the cast, including Matt Damon and Andy Lau . A song from Wang Leehom and Tan Weiwei was released on November 15, 2016, to promote The Great Wall . "Bridge of Fate" was composed and produced by Wang Leehom, with lyrics written by Vincent Fang , a longtime collaborator of singer-songwriter Jay Chou . Female rocker Tan Weiwei joined Wang for
1180-518: A black hero." When Gene Wilder replaced Gig Young as the Waco Kid, he did so only when Brooks agreed that his next film would be a script that Wilder had been working on: a spoof of the Universal series of Frankenstein films from several decades earlier. After the filming of Blazing Saddles was completed, Wilder and Brooks began writing the script for Young Frankenstein and shot it in
1298-511: A cameo appearance as an alcoholic ex-serf who "yearns for the regular beatings of yesteryear". The film was shot in Yugoslavia with a budget of $ 1.5 million. It received poor reviews and was not financially successful. Brooks then wrote an adaptation of Oliver Goldsmith 's She Stoops to Conquer , but was unable to sell the idea to any studio and believed that his career was over. In 1972, he met agent David Begelman , who helped him set up
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#17328021006381416-497: A character from Dostoevsky's The Idiot . And the name Leo Bloom is a reference to Leopold Bloom, hero of Joyce 's Ulysses . Regarding religion, Brooks stated, "I'm rather secular. I'm basically Jewish. But I think I'm Jewish not because of the Jewish religion at all. I think it's the relationship with the people and the pride I have. The tribe surviving so many misfortunes, and being so brave and contributing so much knowledge to
1534-691: A comedian at the age of 16, filling in for an ill MC. During his teens, he changed his name to Melvin Brooks, influenced by his mother's maiden name Brookman, after being confused with trumpeter Max Kaminsky . Brooks graduated from Eastern District High School in Williamsburg in January 1944 and intended to follow his older brother and enroll in Brooklyn College to study psychology. In early 1944, in his senior year in high school, Brooks
1652-412: A comic and a writer for Sid Caesar 's variety show Your Show of Shows from 1950 to 1954. With Carl Reiner , he created the comedy sketch The 2000 Year Old Man , and together, they released several comedy albums, starting with 2000 Year Old Man in 1960. With Buck Henry , he created the hit television comedy series Get Smart , which starred Don Adams and ran from 1965 to 1970. Brooks won
1770-446: A crazy, unreal comic-strip kind of thing about something besides a family. No one had ever done a show about an idiot before. I decided to be the first." Starring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, the series ran from 1965 until 1970, although Brooks had little involvement after the first season. It was highly rated for most of its production and won seven Emmy Awards , including Outstanding Comedy Series in 1968 and 1969. During
1888-444: A dart out of the window in a scene with Kenneth Mars. Composer John Morris again provided the score, and Universal monsters special effects veteran Kenneth Strickfaden worked on the film. Young Frankenstein was the third-highest-grossing film domestically of 1974, just behind Blazing Saddles with a gross of $ 86 million. It also received two Academy Award nominations for Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound . It received some of
2006-523: A deal with Warner Bros. to hire Brooks (as well as Richard Pryor , Andrew Bergman , Norman Steinberg , and Alan Uger ) as a script doctor for an unproduced script called Tex-X . Eventually, Brooks was hired as director for what became Blazing Saddles (1974), his third film. Blazing Saddles starred Cleavon Little , Gene Wilder , Harvey Korman , Slim Pickens , Madeline Kahn , Alex Karras , and Brooks himself, with cameos by Dom DeLuise and Count Basie . It had music by Brooks and John Morris, and
2124-450: A duet, but with two different vocal styles. Wang sang pop, while Tan performed a traditional Qinqiang – a folk Chinese opera style from Shaanxi Province. Chinese pop diva Jane Zhang released another new English song, Battle Field , and its promotional music video, for The Great Wall on November 22, 2016. The song was composed by King Logan and Maroon 5 's keyboardist PJ Morton and written by Josiah "JoJo" Martin and Jane Zhang. It
2242-609: A far warmer realm in which affection always outweighs irony." The production broke the Tony Award record with 12 wins, a record previously held for 37 years by Hello, Dolly! with 10 wins including the Tony Award for Best Musical . It led to a 2005 big-screen version of the Broadway adaptation/remake with Lane, Broderick, Gary Beach , and Roger Bart reprising their stage roles, and new cast members Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell . In early April 2006, Brooks began composing
2360-499: A little cash to throw him gags....At 24, Brooks got his break as a full-time writer. Brooks found more rewarding work behind the scenes, becoming a comedy writer for television. In 1949, his friend Sid Caesar hired him to write jokes for the DuMont/NBC series The Admiral Broadway Revue , paying him, off-the-books, $ 50 a week. In 1950, Caesar created the innovative variety comedy series Your Show of Shows and hired Brooks as
2478-431: A million copies in 1961. They eventually expanded their routine with two more albums in 1961 and 1962, a revival in 1973, a 1975 animated TV special, and a reunion album in 1998. At one point, when Brooks had financial and career struggles, the record sales from the 2000 Year Old Man were his chief source of income. Brooks adapted the 2000 Year Old Man character to create the 2500-Year-Old Brewmaster for Ballantine Beer in
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#17328021006382596-469: A mind.' The book was Dead Souls by the magnificent genius Nikolai Gogol . It was a revelation. I'd never read anything like it. It was hysterically funny and incredibly moving at the same time... It was a life-changing gift, and I still read it once a year to remind myself of what great comic writing can be." Brooks and co-writer Reiner had become close friends and began to casually improvise comedy routines when they were not working. In October 1959, for
2714-602: A modest budget of $ 2.6 million. A satire on the Western film genre, it references older films such as Destry Rides Again (1939), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), High Noon (1952) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). In a surreal sequence towards the end, it references the extravagant musicals of Busby Berkeley . Despite mixed reviews, Blazing Saddles was a success with younger audiences. It became
2832-499: A nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for his role as the narrator in the series. Brooks is one of the few people who have received an Oscar , an Emmy , a Tony , and a Grammy . He won his first Grammy for Best Spoken Comedy Album in 1999 for his recording of The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000 with Carl Reiner . His two other Grammys came in 2002 for Best Musical Show Album for
2950-423: A parody of science fiction, mainly Star Wars . It starred Bill Pullman , John Candy , Rick Moranis , Daphne Zuniga , Dick Van Patten, Joan Rivers , Dom DeLuise, and Brooks. In 1989, Brooks (with co-executive producer Alan Spencer ) made another attempt at television success with the sitcom The Nutt House , featuring Brooks regulars Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman. It was originally broadcast on NBC, but
3068-451: A poster reading "Mel Brooks presents The Elephant Man " would expect a comedy, he set up the company Brooksfilms . It has since produced a number of non-comedy films, including Frances (1982), The Fly (1986), and 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) starring Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft—as well as comedies, including Richard Benjamin 's My Favorite Year (1982), partially based on Mel Brooks's real life. Brooks sought to purchase
3186-535: A press conference for All American , a reporter asked, "What are you going to do next?" and Brooks replied, "Springtime for Hitler," perhaps riffing on Springtime for Henry . For several years, Brooks toyed with a bizarre and unconventional idea about a musical comedy of Adolf Hitler . He explored the idea as a novel and a play before finally writing a script. He eventually found two producers to fund it, Joseph E. Levine and Sidney Glazier , and made his first feature film, The Producers (1968). The Producers
3304-537: A reputation in New York City. Kenneth Tynan saw the comedy duo perform at a party in 1959 and wrote that Brooks "was the most original comic improvisor I had ever seen". In 1960, Brooks, without his family, moved from New York to Hollywood, returning in 1961. He and Reiner began performing the "2000 Year Old Man" act on The Steve Allen Show . Their performances led to the release of the comedy album 2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks that sold over
3422-620: A review for the Huffington Post , writes that "having seen The Great Wall , I can say that ... on the charge of The Great Wall insulting the Chinese and promoting white superiority, I say: Not Guilty. The question of whether The Great Wall is a white savior movie is a bit trickier, but I'm still going to say Not Guilty. ... On the charge of whitewashing, I say: Not Guilty." Deadline Hollywood noted that audience surveys by PostTrak indicated that Asians were turning out to see
3540-569: A salary of $ 5,000 a week on Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour , his salary dropped to $ 85 a week as a freelance writer. For five years he had few gigs , and was living in Greenwich Village on Perry Street in a fourth-floor walk-up. In 1960, to escape his situation, Brooks moved in with a friend, in Los Angeles. In 1961, after his return to New York, he found that Baum had begun suing him for legal separation. Marriage Is
3658-526: A screenplay by Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro and Tony Gilroy , from a story by Max Brooks , Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz . An American and Chinese co-production starring Matt Damon , Jing Tian , Pedro Pascal , Willem Dafoe , and Andy Lau , the plot centers on two European mercenary warriors (Damon and Pascal) imprisoned by imperial Chinese forces within the Great Wall of China after arriving in search of gunpowder , eventually joining forces with
Max Brooks - Misplaced Pages Continue
3776-471: A short video endorsing Joe Biden 's presidential campaign. Mel Brooks Melvin James Brooks ( né Kaminsky ; born June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies . A recipient of numerous accolades , he is one of 21 entertainers to win
3894-413: A southern science professor at a large university who uses the principles of engineering on the college's football team and the team begins to win games. It was directed by Joshua Logan , who script-doctored the second act and added a gay subtext to the plot. It ran for 80 performances and received two Tony Award nominations. The animated short film The Critic (1963), a satire of arty, esoteric cinema,
4012-449: A writer along with Carl Reiner , Neil Simon , Danny Simon , and head writer Mel Tolkin . The writing staff proved widely influential. Reiner, as creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show , based Morey Amsterdam 's character Buddy Sorell on Brooks. Likewise, the film My Favorite Year (1982) is loosely based on Brooks's experiences as a writer on the show including an encounter with the actor Errol Flynn . Neil Simon's play Laughter on
4130-468: Is Jewish , while his mother was an Italian-American Catholic. Brooks is dyslexic , and recalled that during the time in which he was growing up: ...they didn't even call it a disability back then; it was just "laziness," "goofing off," "you're not trying hard enough." "You can do it but you don't want to do it" — that was a big one of my teachers. And my mother, one of the greatest, most successful actresses of her day, gave up her career, put her career on
4248-508: Is an homage to silent comedians Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton , among others. It was not as successful as Brooks's previous two films but did gross $ 36 million. Later that year, he was named fifth on the Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll . Reviews were generally favorable; Roger Ebert praised it as "not only funny, but fun. It's clear at almost every moment that the filmmakers had a ball making it." Regarding
4366-627: Is arrested by the Nameless Order for his apparent betrayal and is locked up in the Wall. Some distance away, Ballard betrays and abandons Tovar. Ballard is later captured by bandits, who accidentally ignite the powder, killing the Westerner and themselves. At the capital, the envoy presents the captive Tao Tie to the Emperor. The creature awakens and reveals its position to its queen, who signals
4484-477: Is based on anger and hostility. Growing up in Williamsburg, I learned to clothe it in comedy to spare myself problems—like a punch in the face." Brooks was a small, sickly boy who often was bullied and teased by his classmates because of his size. At age nine, he saw Anything Goes with William Gaxton , Ethel Merman and Victor Moore at the Alvin Theater . After the show, he told his uncle that he
4602-430: Is filled with one-liners and the occasional breaking of the fourth wall . Robin Hood: Men in Tights was Brooks's second time exploring the life of Robin Hood (the first, as mentioned above, being his 1975 TV show When Things Were Rotten ). Life Stinks was a financial and critical failure, but is notable as the only film Brooks directed that is neither a parody nor a film about other films or theater. ( The Twelve Chairs
4720-496: Is his godfather. DeLuise's father Dom DeLuise was a frequent costar of Brooks in his earlier career. Brooks is a voracious reader; in a profile for The New Yorker , Kenneth Tynan describes "Brooks the secret connoisseur, worshiper of good writing, and expert on the Russian classics , with special reverence to Gogol , Turgenev , Dostoevski , and Tolstoy ." In The Producers , Bialystock refers to Bloom as "Prince Myshkin",
4838-637: The World War Z universe. In 2014, Broadway Books published The Harlem Hellfighters , a graphic novel which portrays a fictionalized account of the African American 369th Infantry Regiment 's experiences in World War I , written by Brooks and illustrated by Caanan White. Sony Pictures has purchased the rights to create a film of the novel, with Caleeb Pinkett and James Lassiter producing on behalf of Overbrook Entertainment . He wrote
Max Brooks - Misplaced Pages Continue
4956-545: The 78th Infantry Division as a forward artillery observer . In December 1944, a short while later, Brooks was transferred to the 1104th Engineer Combat Battalion as a combat engineer , participating in the Battle of the Bulge . Of his experience there, Brooks noted: Along the roadside, you'd see bodies wrapped up in mattress covers and stacked in a ditch, and those would be Americans, that could be me. I sang all
5074-820: The AFI Life Achievement Award , in June 2013. In 2014 Brooks was honored in a handprint and footprint ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre . His concrete handprints include a six-fingered left hand as he wore a prosthetic finger when making his prints. On March 20, 2015, he received a British Film Institute Fellowship from the British Film Institute . Brooks met Florence Baum, a dancer in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , on Broadway. They were married from 1953 until their divorce in 1962. They had three children. After earning
5192-741: The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Producers (1967). He then rose to prominence becoming one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s with The Twelve Chairs (1970), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Silent Movie (1976), and High Anxiety (1977). Later Brooks made History of the World, Part I (1981), Spaceballs (1987), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995). A musical adaptation of his first film, The Producers , ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2007 and earned Brooks three Tony Awards . The project
5310-776: The American Film Institute 's list of the top 100 comedy films of the past 100 years (1900–2000) , all of which were ranked in the top 15: Blazing Saddles at number 6, The Producers at number 11, and Young Frankenstein at number 13. Brooks was born Melvin James Kaminsky on a tenement kitchen table on June 28, 1926, in Brownsville, Brooklyn , to Kate ( née Brookman) and Max Kaminsky, and grew up in Williamsburg . His father's family were Polish Jews from Danzig (Gdańsk, Poland); his mother
5428-967: The Fort Dix , New Jersey , induction center, and was sent to the Field Artillery Replacement Training Center at Fort Sill, Oklahoma for basic training and radio operator training. Brooks was then sent back to Fort Dix for overseas assignment. Brooks says he boarded SS Sea Owl at the Brooklyn Navy Yard around February 15, 1945. A reporter for the United States Department of Defense writes that Brooks arrived in France in November 1944, and later in Belgium, serving with
5546-650: The Great Wall project is that there have been requests in the last 10 or 20 years. Now the production is big enough and really appealing. And, very importantly, it has Chinese elements in it. Zhang Yimou , director Principal photography began on March 30, 2015, on location in Qingdao . The filming wrapped on July 23, 2015. As of 2015 it was the most expensive film ever shot entirely in China. Three walls were built during production as they could not shoot on
5664-547: The Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry . Brooks has said that the film "has to do with love more than anything else. I mean when that black guy rides into that Old Western town and even a little old lady says 'Up yours, nigger!', you know that his heart is broken. So it's really the story of that heart being mended." Brooks described the film as "a Jewish western with
5782-626: The Manhattan Marriage Bureau . Their son, Max Brooks , was born in 1972. In 2010, Brooks credited Bancroft as "the guiding force" behind his involvement in developing The Producers and Young Frankenstein for the musical theater, saying of an early meeting with her: "From that day, until her death ... we were glued together." He has remained single since she died, stating in 2023 that "Once you are married to Anne Bancroft, others don't seem to be appealing". According to David DeLuise on Wizards of Waverley Pod , Brooks
5900-690: The Roer River , later building bridges over the Rhine river . In April 1945, Brooks's unit conducted its last reconnaissance missions in the Harz mountains , Germany. With the end of the war in Europe , Brooks joined the Special Services as a comic touring Army bases and he was made acting corporal , put in charge of entertainment at Wiesbaden , and performed at Fort Dix. In June 1946, Brooks
6018-506: The "professional score" is 4.9 out of 10. On December 28, 2016, the Communist Party's official media outlet People's Daily published an article on its website severely criticizing Douban and Maoyan for doing harm to the Chinese movie industry with their bad reviews. On the same day, Maoyan took down its "professional score" of 4.9 for The Great Wall but kept the high "audience score" of 8.4 out of 10. However, another article
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#17328021006386136-519: The 1960s. Interviewed by Dick Cavett in a series of ads, the Brewmaster (in a German accent, as opposed to the 2000 Year Old Man's Yiddish accent) said he was inside the original Trojan horse and "could've used a six-pack of fresh air". Brooks was involved in the creation of the Broadway musical All American which debuted on Broadway in 1962. He wrote the play with lyrics by Lee Adams and music by Charles Strouse . It starred Ray Bolger as
6254-438: The 23rd Floor (1993) is also loosely based on the production of the show, and the character Ira Stone is based on Brooks. Your Show of Shows ended in 1954 when performer Imogene Coca left to host her own show. Caesar then created Caesar's Hour with most of the same cast and writers (including Brooks and adding Woody Allen and Larry Gelbart ). It ran from 1954 until 1957. Brooks told The New York Times , "When I
6372-691: The Chinese to help combat an alien threat. The Great Wall is Zhang's first English-language film. Principal photography for the film began on March 30, 2015, in Qingdao , China , and it premiered in Beijing on December 6, 2016. It was released by China Film Group in China on December 16, 2016, the United States on February 17, 2017 by Universal Pictures , and in Japan on April 14, 2017 by Toho-Towa . The film, which received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, grossed $ 334.9 million worldwide and
6490-538: The EGOT , which includes an Emmy Award , a Grammy Award , an Academy Award , and a Tony Award . He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2024. Brooks began his career as
6608-567: The Nameless Order, led by General Shao and Strategist Wang. The Nameless Order exists to combat Tao Tie , alien monsters that arrived from a meteorite and attack once every sixty years. The Order's commanders are surprised by the monsters' first assault, which has come one week early. Shortly after, a horde of Tao Tie assails the Wall. During the battle, Garin and Tovar are freed by Ballard, an Englishman who came east twenty-five years earlier; detained, he now serves as an English and Latin teacher. Garin and Tovar display amazing battle skills. Saving
6726-608: The Tao Tie starts, the Westerners capture a monster and prove the theory. However, the Imperial envoy claims the creature and takes it to the capital to present to the Emperor. It is revealed that the previous attacks had been a distraction so that the Tao Tie could dig a tunnel at the base of the Wall. While Lin investigates, Tovar and Ballard steal black powder and escape, knocking Garin unconscious for trying to stop them. Garin
6844-443: The Tao Tie to attack. The Order rushes to the capital. Lin orders the use of hot-air balloons and sets Garin free before leaving. Wang tells him to warn the outside world, but Garin boards the last balloon with Peng and Wang. They arrive just in time to save Lin from being devoured. They land in the Emperor's palace, where Wang proposes killing the queen by tying explosives to the captured Tao Tie and giving it meat to be delivered to
6962-593: The Zombie War , a novel on the same subject, set in the ten years following a zombie apocalypse . Paramount Pictures acquired the rights for a film adaptation, and Brad Pitt 's production company, Plan B Entertainment , produced the film . In the October 2006 issue of Fangoria , Brooks stated that he would not be writing the screenplay for the motion picture, as he felt he was not an accomplished enough screenwriter to "do it right". J. Michael Straczynski wrote
7080-499: The actual Great Wall. During the filmmaking, the director said the most impressive part for him was the presence of so many translators to handle communication, as he assembled an international crew for the filming. More than 100 on-set translators worked with the various cast and crew members. The film's score is composed by Ramin Djawadi . The first track called "Nameless Order" was released on December 14, 2016. The Great Wall
7198-448: The best reviews of Brooks's career. Even notoriously hard-to-please critic Pauline Kael liked it, saying: "Brooks makes a leap up as a director because, although the comedy doesn't build, he carries the story through ... [He] even has a satisfying windup, which makes this just about the only comedy of recent years that doesn't collapse." In 1975, at the height of his movie career, Brooks tried TV again with When Things Were Rotten ,
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#17328021006387316-401: The box office, behind holdovers The Lego Batman Movie and Fifty Shades Darker , and eventually grossing $ 45.2 million. The film joined Terminator Genisys , Warcraft and fellow 2017 release xXx: Return of Xander Cage as the only Hollywood films to earn $ 100 million in China without making $ 100 million in the United States. In March 2017, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that
7434-405: The capital arrives with an ancient scroll that suggests that the monsters are pacified by magnets. Wang believes the stone Garin carries enabled him to slay the Tao Tie he encountered. To test the hypothesis, Garin suggests they capture a Tao Tie alive and agrees to help. This delays the escape plans, angering Tovar, who nevertheless assists Garin despite Ballard's protests. While a new fight with
7552-710: The cast album of The Producers and for Best Long Form Music Video for the DVD Recording the Producers: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks . He won his first of four Emmy awards in 1967 for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Variety for a Sid Caesar special, and won Emmys in 1997, 1998, and 1999 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his role of Uncle Phil on Mad About You . He won his Academy Award for Original Screenplay (Oscar) in 1968 for The Producers . He won his three Tony awards in 2001 for his work on
7670-483: The cryptid Bigfoot . It was released on June 16, 2020. Brooks has a number of other creative credits. As an actor, he has been seen in Roseanne , To Be or Not to Be , Pacific Blue , and 7th Heaven . He also has a career voicing animation: his voice has been featured in the animated shows Batman Beyond , Buzz Lightyear of Star Command , Justice League , and All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series . During
7788-491: The edge of a diving board wearing a derby and a large alpaca overcoat with two suitcases full of rocks, and then announced: "Business is terrible! I can't go on!" before jumping, fully clothed into the pool. He was taught by Buddy Rich (who had also grown up in Williamsburg) how to play the drums, and started to earn money as a musician when he was 14. During his time as a drummer, he was given his first opportunity as
7906-433: The film 3 out of 4 stars, summarizing: " The Great Wall is unlike any American blockbuster you've seen, a conservative movie with action set pieces that are actually inventive and thrilling enough to be worthwhile. See it on as big a screen as you can." Clarence Tsui, writing for The Hollywood Reporter , gave the film a negative review, saying: " The Great Wall is easily the least interesting and involving blockbuster of
8024-449: The film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, writing for The A.V. Club , gave the film a B− on an A to F scale, saying: "There is no logical reason for the film to climax in a tower of stained glass that paints Lin Mae and William in psychedelic Suspiria lighting, but boy does it look gorgeous in 3-D." Simon Abrams, a contributor for RogerEbert.com , gave
8142-418: The film and constituted its second largest demographic group at 26% (behind Caucasians at 43%). Director Zhang said that Damon was not playing a role that was intended for a Chinese actor. He criticized detractors for not being "armed with the facts" and stated that "In many ways The Great Wall is the opposite of what is being suggested. For the first time, a film deeply rooted in Chinese culture, with one of
8260-420: The film was accused of whitewashing and using the white savior narrative prior to its release. Ann Hornaday , chief film critic for The Washington Post , wrote that "early concerns about Damon playing a 'white savior' in the film turn out to be unfounded: his character, a mercenary soldier, is heroic, but also clearly a foil for the superior principles and courage of his Chinese allies." Jonathan Kim, in
8378-521: The film was likely to lose about $ 75 million due to its underwhelming performance theatrically, as its performance in most major markets, including the United States and Canada, was disappointing. The loss incurred by all four studios varied, with Universal Pictures , which funded about 25% of the film's $ 150 million production budget, losing around $ 10 million. The rest of the investors, Legendary Entertainment , China Film Group and Le Vision Pictures , had an equal loss. Universal also covered almost all of
8496-451: The film's global marketing expenses of more than $ 80 million, so the studio incurred an even heavier loss. Ancillary revenues from home entertainment sales and TV rights, may offset some of the losses. In March 2018, Deadline Hollywood calculated the film lost the studio $ 74.5 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues. Deadline reported that The Great Wall received "poor reviews" from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes ,
8614-689: The film's inside jokes, Ebert wrote that "the thing about Brooks's inside jokes is that their outsides are funny, too." High Anxiety (1977), Brooks's parody of Freudian psychoanalysis , as well as the films of Alfred Hitchcock , was written by Brooks, Ron Clark, Rudy De Luca , and Barry Levinson , and was the first movie Brooks produced himself. Starring Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman , Harvey Korman, Ron Carey , Howard Morris , and Dick Van Patten , it satirizes such Hitchcock films as Vertigo , Spellbound , Psycho , The Birds , North by Northwest , Dial M for Murder and Suspicion . Brooks plays Professor Richard H. (Harpo) Thorndyke,
8732-443: The first feature-length silent comedy in four decades. Silent Movie (1976) was written by Brooks and Clark, and starred Brooks in his first leading role, with Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Sid Caesar , Bernadette Peters , and in cameo roles playing themselves: Paul Newman , Burt Reynolds , James Caan , Liza Minnelli , Anne Bancroft , and the mime Marcel Marceau , who uttered the film's only word of audible dialogue: "Non!" It
8850-549: The first version of the screenplay. Brooks wrote the introduction for the hardcover collected edition of Dynamite Entertainment 's zombie miniseries Raise the Dead , released in 2007. In 2010, Brooks wrote the IDW comic book mini-series G.I. Joe: Hearts & Minds . In 2012, Brooks published Closure, Limited and Other Zombie Tales , featuring the story of that name from The New Dead , along with three other short stories set in
8968-447: The full company sings, "next year, Blazing Saddles !" In 2010, Brooks confirmed this, saying that the musical could be finished within a year; however, no creative team or plan has been announced. In 2021, at age 95, Brooks published a memoir titled All About Me! . On October 18, 2021, it was announced that Brooks would write and produce History of the World, Part II , a follow-up TV series on Hulu to his 1981 movie . He received
9086-582: The largest Chinese casts ever assembled, is being made at tentpole scale for a world audience. I believe that is a trend that should be embraced by our industry." The film's largest investor, the Wanda Group (co-owner of Legendary Pictures ) has a good relationship with the Chinese Communist Party . As of July 2017, users of film review website Douban rated The Great Wall 4.9 out of 10. On Maoyan , another film review aggregator,
9204-482: The life of young warrior Peng Yong, they slay two monsters, earning them the Order's respect. Both sides sustain heavy losses before the monsters' queen aborts the attack. The three Europeans secretly plan to steal gunpowder and flee during the next monster attack. That night, two Tao Tie reach the top of the Wall. General Shao is killed, placing Commander Lin in charge of the Nameless Order. Around this time, an envoy from
9322-426: The magnet into the horde, creating a gap in the shields, allowing Lin's spear to get through. The queen is killed, and the rest of the horde dies. With the threat eliminated, Garin is allowed to return home and elects to take Tovar with him instead of a reward of black powder, much to Tovar's annoyance. The company and I have been preparing for Great Wall for a long time. It is an action blockbuster. The reason I took
9440-579: The master inventor, in the animated film Robots (2005), and in the later animated film Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) he had a cameo appearance as Albert Einstein . He returned, to voice Dracula's father, Vlad , in Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018). Brooks joked about the concept of a musical adaptation of Blazing Saddles in the final number in Young Frankenstein , in which
9558-425: The moderate financial success of the film The Producers , Glazier financed Brooks's next film, The Twelve Chairs (1970). Loosely based on Ilf and Petrov 's 1928 Russian novel of the same name about greedy materialism in post-revolutionary Russia, it stars Ron Moody , Frank Langella and Dom DeLuise as three men individually searching for a fortune in diamonds hidden in a set of 12 antique chairs. Brooks makes
9676-566: The musical The Producers , for Best Musical, Best Original Musical Score, and Best Book of a Musical. Brooks also won a Hugo Award and Nebula Award for Young Frankenstein . In a 2005 poll by Channel 4 to find The Comedian's Comedian , he was voted No. 50 of the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. The American Film Institute (AFI) lists three of Brooks's films on its AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list: Blazing Saddles (#6), The Producers (#11), and Young Frankenstein (#13). On December 5, 2009, Brooks
9794-521: The nationwide college circuit , then in revivals and on home video. It premiered to a limited audience in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on November 22, 1967, before achieving a wide release in 1968. Peter Sellers personally championed the film, paying out of pocket to take out full page ads in Variety and The New York Times . Brooks, along with his collaborator Thomas Meehan , later adapted it into
9912-471: The network aired only five of the eleven produced episodes before canceling the series. During the next decade, Brooks directed Life Stinks (1991), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995). People magazine wrote, "Anyone in a mood for a hearty laugh couldn't do better than Robin Hood: Men in Tights , which gave fans a parody of Robin Hood , especially Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves ." Like Brooks's other films, it
10030-407: The queen. While approaching the site, a horde of Tao Tie attack the band, and Peng sacrifices himself to save the others. After releasing the Tao Tie, Lin and Garin climb a tower so that Garin can detonate the explosives with an arrow. Wang sacrifices himself to buy time for Lin and Garin to reach the upper floors. Two of Garin's arrows are deflected by the Tao Tie queen's bodyguards, but Garin throws
10148-404: The respective careers of both its director and star." In 2021 Matt Damon said his daughter had mocked him for the movie. She made a point of calling it "The Wall", and when Damon corrected her with "The Great Wall", she remarked that there was nothing great about it. Because some of the characters, including a main character played by Matt Damon , are white in a film set in medieval China,
10266-649: The rights to 84 Charing Cross Road for his wife, Anne Bancroft, for many years. He also produced the comedy Fatso (1980) that Bancroft directed. In 1981, Brooks joked that the only genres that he hadn't spoofed were historical epics and Biblical spectacles. History of the World Part I was a tongue-in-cheek look at human culture from the Dawn of Man to the French Revolution . Written, produced and directed by Brooks, with narration by Orson Welles , it
10384-427: The run, chasing—and being pursued". Brooks endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election in his first-ever public endorsement of a political candidate. He endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election . Interviews The Great Wall (film) The Great Wall ( simplified Chinese : 长城 ; traditional Chinese : 長城 ) is a 2016 monster film directed by Zhang Yimou , with
10502-700: The score to a Broadway musical adaptation of Young Frankenstein , which he says is "perhaps the best movie [he] ever made". The world premiere was at Seattle's Paramount Theater, between August 7, 2007, and September 1, 2007, after which it opened on Broadway at the former Lyric Theater (then the Hilton Theatre), New York, on October 11, 2007. It earned mixed reviews from the critics. In the 2000s, Brooks worked on an animated series sequel to Spaceballs called Spaceballs: The Animated Series , which premiered on September 21, 2008, on G4 TV . Brooks has also supplied vocal roles for animation. He voiced Bigweld,
10620-515: The second weekend, it grossed $ 26.1 million. The film went on to gross $ 170.9 million at the Chinese box office, which is considered a disappointment. In the United States and Canada, the film opened alongside A Cure for Wellness and Fist Fight , and was projected to gross $ 17–19 million from about 3,200 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $ 970,000 at 2,470 theaters from Thursday night previews, and $ 5.9 million on its first day. It went on to open to $ 18.1 million, finishing third at
10738-550: The second-highest US grossing film of 1974, grossing $ 119.5 million in the United States and Canada. It was nominated for three Academy Awards : Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Madeline Kahn, Best Film Editing , and Best Music, Original Song . It won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen ; and in 2006 it was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by
10856-798: The shelf, to raise me, to be my educational advocate and to teach herself about dyslexia. ... She took, every year, all of my school books that I had to read to the Institute for the Blind and had them all read onto audio cassette so I could listen to my reading list. And if I hadn't been able to do that, I wouldn't have graduated high school. I can literally say that not only did my mother give me my life, she saved my life. Brooks attended Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California . He studied at Pitzer College in Claremont, California , where he earned
10974-429: The spring of 1974. It starred Wilder, Marty Feldman , Peter Boyle , Teri Garr , Madeline Kahn , Cloris Leachman and Kenneth Mars , with Gene Hackman in a cameo role. Brooks' voice can be heard three times: as the wolf howl when the characters are on their way to the castle; as the voice of Victor Frankenstein, when the characters discover the laboratory; and as the sound of a cat when Gene Wilder accidentally throws
11092-734: The start of the third season of Lost Tapes , he was cast as himself in the zombie episode, telling the audience about how zombies come to be. He also appeared on the Spike TV series Deadliest Warrior , in which he represented the zombie team in the "Vampires vs. Zombies" episode, as one of the zombie experts along with Matt Mogk, founder of the Zombie Research Society. Brooks has been married to playwright Michelle Kholos since 2003. They have one son and live in Venice, California . In October 2020, Brooks and his father appeared in
11210-498: The story for the 2016 film The Great Wall , starring Matt Damon . In 2016, Brooks was invited to MineCon and announced that he was working on a new novel based on Minecraft , titled Minecraft: The Island , and in 2021, he published the sequel, Minecraft: The Mountain . In August 2019, Brooks announced a new book, entitled Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre , about
11328-512: The time ... I never wanted to think about it ... Death is the enemy of everyone, and even though you hate Nazis, death is more of an enemy than a German soldier. Stationed in Saarbrücken and Baumholder , the battalion was responsible for clearing booby-trapped buildings and defusing land mines as the Allies advanced into Nazi Germany. Brooks was tasked with land mine location; defusing
11446-433: The world and showing courage". Brooks has consistently expressed pride in his Jewish identity. In 2021, Brooks told NPR's Terry Gross : "I love being a Jew, I love Jewish humor..." On Jewish cinema, Brooks said, "They can be anything and anywhere ... if there's a tribal thing, like, the 'please God, protect us' feeling ... we don't know where and how it's gonna come out. Avatar was a Jewish movie ... these people on
11564-582: Was honorably discharged from the Army as a corporal . After the war, Brooks's mother had secured him a job as a clerk at the Brooklyn Navy Yard , but Brooks "got into a taxi and ordered the driver to take him to the Catskills", where he started working in various Borscht Belt resorts and nightclubs in the Catskill Mountains as a drummer and pianist. When a regular comic at one of the clubs
11682-528: Was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant from Kyiv , in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine). He had three older brothers: Irving, Lenny, and Bernie. His father died of tuberculosis of the kidney at 34 when Brooks was two years old. He has said of his father's death, "There's an outrage there. I may be angry at God, or at the world, for that. And I'm sure a lot of my comedy
11800-430: Was a fledgling comedy writer working for Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows , our head writer was Mel Tolkin... I really looked up to him. (By the way, I was 5-foot-7 and he was six feet tall.) He was a bona fide intellectual, thoroughly steeped in the traditions of great Russian literature. One day he handed me a book. He said to me, 'Mel, you're an animal from Brooklyn, but I think you have the beginnings of something called
11918-468: Was a parody of the original novel.) Brooks created the musical adaptation of his film The Producers on the Broadway in 2001. The production starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick received critical acclaim and was a significant box office success. The New York Times theatre critic Ben Brantley praised the production writing, "Mr. Brooks has taken what could have been overblown camp into
12036-512: Was an attempt at a joint production between Chinese and American talent. The film was directed by a big-time Chinese director, Zhang Yimou, and starred Hollywood stars Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe alongside Chinese film stars in an attempt to capture Chinese audiences. Although the film was considered to be a box office failure in China, the intent was clear and compelling. Other film studios such as Pixar have been making these minor adjustments to appeal to international audiences for years. The film
12154-460: Was another modest financial hit, earning $ 31 million. It received mixed critical reviews. Critic Pauline Kael , who for years had been critical of Brooks, said, "Either you get stuck thinking about the bad taste or you let yourself laugh at the obscenity in the humor as you do Buñuel 's perverse dirty jokes." Brooks produced and starred in (but did not write or direct) a remake of Ernst Lubitsch 's 1942 film To Be or Not to Be . His 1983 version
12272-483: Was conceived by Brooks and directed by Ernest Pintoff . Brooks supplied running commentary as the baffled moviegoer trying to make sense of the obscure visuals. It won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film . With comedy writer Buck Henry , Brooks created a TV comedy show titled Get Smart , about a bumbling James Bond –inspired spy. Brooks said, "I was sick of looking at all those nice sensible situation comedies. They were such distortions of life... I wanted to do
12390-418: Was considered a box-office bomb for losing up to $ 75 million. During the reign of Renzong Emperor , a group of European mercenaries travels to China, searching for gunpowder . A few miles north of the Great Wall , they are attacked by a monster. Only Irishman William Garin and Spaniard Pero Tovar survive. They sever the monster's arm and bring it with them. Upon reaching the Wall, they are taken prisoner by
12508-411: Was directed by Alan Johnson and starred Brooks, Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning , Tim Matheson , Jose Ferrer and Christopher Lloyd . It generated international publicity by featuring a controversial song on its soundtrack—" To Be or Not to Be (The Hitler Rap) "—satirizing German society in the 1940s, with Brooks playing Hitler. The second movie Brooks directed in the 1980s was Spaceballs (1987),
12626-404: Was done by a specialist. Brooks has stated that when he heard Germans singing over loudspeakers, he responded by singing into a bullhorn , Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye!) by American-Jewish singer Al Jolson . Brooks spent time in the stockade after taking an anti-Semitic heckler's helmet off and smashing him in the head with his mess kit. His unit constructed the first Bailey bridge over
12744-416: Was going to be." On one of these occasions, Reiner's suggestion concerned a 2000-year-old man who had witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (who "came in the store but never bought anything"), had been married several hundred times and had "over forty-two thousand children, and not one comes to visit me". At first Brooks and Reiner only performed the routine for friends but, by the late 1950s, it gained
12862-473: Was not going to work in the garment district like everyone else but instead wanted to go into show business. When Brooks was 14 he gained employment as a pool-side tummler (entertainer) at the Butler Lodge, a second-rate Borscht Belt hotel, where he met 18-year-old Sid Caesar . Brooks kept his guests amused with his crazy antics. In a Playboy interview, he explained that one day he stood at
12980-597: Was one of five recipients of the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 23, 2010, with a motion pictures star located at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard . American Masters produced a biography on Brooks which premiered May 20, 2013, on PBS . The AFI presented Brooks with its highest tribute,
13098-471: Was produced by Timbaland . Universal Pictures and Legendary Entertainment debuted eight character posters of the film on November 17, 2016. All in all, Legendary spent $ 110–120 million on promotion and advertising worldwide. Legendary Pictures made a strategic decision to work with Chinese talent and investors and altered their production plan to better cater to Chinese audiences. The Great Wall , funded by Legendary, China Film Group, and Universal Pictures
13216-404: Was published later in the evening from the same People's Daily and it commented the Chinese movie industry should accept people have the right to leave even one-star reviews. After the second article was published, many questioned People's Daily, as they had published two commentaries on the same day that were in stark contrast. The editorial board responded that the second article published later
13334-744: Was recruited to take the Army General Classification Test , a Stanford-Binet -type IQ test . He made high scores and was sent to the Army Specialized Training Program at the Virginia Military Institute to be taught electrical engineering , horse riding, and saber fighting. In 1944, Brooks was drafted into the Army. Twelve weeks later, when he turned 18, he officially joined the United States Army at
13452-431: Was released for digital download on May 9, 2017, and on DVD, Blu-ray on May 23, 2017. The Great Wall grossed $ 45.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $ 289.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $ 334.9 million, against a production budget of $ 150 million. In China, The Great Wall opened on December 16, 2016 and made $ 24.3 million on its first day and $ 67.4 million in its opening weekend. In
13570-512: Was released in China on December 16, 2016. It was released on February 17, 2017 in the United States by Universal Pictures . In the Philippines, the film was released by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures Philippines on January 25, 2017. The Great Wall released its first trailer in July 2016. The trailer shows views of the Great Wall in fog, thousands of soldiers on
13688-482: Was remade into a musical film in 2005 . He wrote and produced the Hulu series History of the World, Part II (2023). Brooks was married to actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death in 2005. Their son Max Brooks is an actor and author, known for his novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006). In 2021, Mel Brooks published his memoir titled All About Me! . Three of his films are included on
13806-484: Was so brazen in its satire that major studios would not touch it, nor would many exhibitors. Brooks finally found an independent distributor who released it as an art film, a specialized attraction. At the 41st Academy Awards , Brooks won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film over fellow writers Stanley Kubrick and John Cassavetes . The Producers became a smash underground hit, first on
13924-746: Was too sick to perform, Brooks started working as a stand-up comic, telling jokes and doing movie-star impressions. He also began acting in summer stock in Red Bank, New Jersey, and did some radio work. He eventually worked his way up to the comically aggressive job of tummler at Grossinger's , one of the Borscht Belt's most famous resorts. In the years after the war, Brooks's hero was comedian Sid Caesar. Back in New York, Brooks would slink around trying to catch Caesar in between meetings to pitch him joke ideas. Eventually Caesar cracked and paid Brooks
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