As some of our all-time legends get up there in years, if you have a chance to see them, you should because you don’t know when, or if, you’ll get the chance again. Among those people is iconic actor, director, writer, and comedy genius Mel Brooks who is 97 years old but doesn’t act a day over 85. Brooks was in attendance at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood this weekend to present his 1987 film, Spaceballs, and he was everything you’d want and more.
After walking into a standing ovation, the man behind Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and The Producers ignored questions by TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz and just started going off on incredible tangents. Some were about the making of those films. Others were about his early days on the stage. He even recalled the time he had dinner with Alfred Hitchcock (to get his approval for the spoof High Anxiety) where Hitchcock ate a full meal complete with steak, shrimp, and more, was still hungry after, and then ordered the full meal again. These were hilarious, unforgettable moments.
But everyone was there to see Spaceballs and, eventually, the conversation did turn to that, albeit briefly. Here’s a quick video we grabbed from our seats.
In the clip, you’ll see Brooks confirms the story we’ve always heard about his work with George Lucas. Lucas was fine with the parody, as long as Brooks didn’t make any of his own merchandise, which he never has. But, Brooks wondered, is that still true? What if there was ever a Spaceballs 2? Rumors have been circling for decades and now with the film’s original distributor MGM owned by Amazon, those rumors may be bubbling up again, especially with Brooks still floating it as a possibility after all these years. (Was he joking? Almost certainly. But let us dare to dream.)
Brooks also talked about his adoration for the franchise that inspired his movie. “I loved it. I loved the picture,” he said about Star Wars. “I thought it was unusual. I thought it was incredibly original and it was a combination of all the things that I loved when I was a kid, like Ivanhoe and Robin Hood. It was kind of like a fairy tale with zaps. A lot of zaps. But it was good. It was a good movie and its heart was in the right place.”
Brooks’ heart is in the right place too, still getting laughs and making everyone happy after almost a century.
Spaceballs is currently streaming on Max. The Star Wars films are on Disney+.
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