Say it isn’t so, Steve Carell.

According to the MTV Movie File, Steve Carell and whatever poor slobs he was contracted to work with prior to becoming an actual movie star and potential Jim Carrey successor are forging ahead with the big screen adaptation of the TV classic Get Smart, with additional casting news coming soon and a potential release date in 2008.

To which we’d reply, “Oh. Great.” (pause while we contemplate other uses not sanctioned by the manufacturer for those electric hedge clippers in our garage)

Hollywood just hasn’t learned the Bewitched and Dukes of Hazzard lesson yet - that there really is NO built-in audience for these remake properties. That old line where the studio PR department claims “this new movie will bring [dusted-off TV title here] to an entirely new audience” continues to be disproven over and over again. And even when the filmmaking has some muscle to it - such as with Miami Vice - there is simply no guarantee that the audience will come. Forget a guarantee, it’s way past the point that it’s even a good bet, let alone a sound financial investment.

But this is unfortunate for Steve Carell most of all, who signed on to play Maxwell Smart before The 40-Year-Old Virgin brought him some well-deserved box office legitimacy. With decent reviews for his more serious performance in Little Miss Sunshine, it’s a shame that we could see him slumming again in a truly pointless project like a Get Smart adaptation. And hasn’t the bumbling spy spoof essentially been hijacked already?

If it sounds like we’re being harsh on movies adapted from TV shows, just remember: for every Wayne’s World, there’s this. And this. And here. That. This one. And, we can likely predict, this crap. Oh, and here also.

Steve Carell is an exceptional comedian and, so far, a solid acting presence. We’d hate to see all of that talent momentum slam into the unforgiving brick wall of box office failure.

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That picture of the Get Smart lunchbox above is from the Henry Ford Museum website; here’s the larger version. Maybe we don’t remember the show so accurately, but what’s with that huge frigging dog?

Updated: The dog was named “Fang” and appeared on Get Smart from ‘65 - ‘70. Still, some lunchbox art director didn’t take the concept of “relative size” very seriously when he approved that artwork.