 Jennifer Love Hewitt and Rachel McAdams were considered for the part of "Agent 99" before it went to Anne Hathaway. Based on the 1965 television series "Get Smart" (1965), starring Don Adams.
When the project was in development in 1998, Jim Carrey was attached to star.
Maxwell Smart stops to get a ride from a guy driving an Opel. The driver, Bernie Kopell, played Siegfried on the original series.
Don Adams, the original Maxwell Smart, was born Donald Yarmy. The airline that took Max and 99 to Russia was called Yarmy International as a tribute to him.
There are references to the three cars that were shown in the original television series. The most obvious is the Sunbeam Tiger shown in the display. Also shown were a Volkswagen Karman Ghia and an Opel GT. All of these cars were in the opening credits for the original series in various years.
During the opening credits, there are clips of Get Smart villains from the series, including Mr. Big (Michael Dunn`s picture) and the Claw.
James Caan, who plays the President, was a good friend and golfing buddy of Don Adams. He also played Rupert of Rathskeller in the two-part episode "To Sire, With Love."
When Smart meets 99, a background movie marquee reads `Ship of Spies`, the name of a two-part episode in the original series.
All of Dwayne Johnson`s the tattoos are real.
The woman in the photo behind the Chief`s desk is actress Jane Dulo who played 99`s mother on the original series.
Steve Carell and B.J. Novak did uncredited work on the script.
Shipped to some theaters under the name "The Believer".
One of the items in CONTROL`s display cases is a two small domes connected by a tube, a Portable Cone of Silence from the original series.
The first item in the display of old CONTROL equipment is Max`s Shoe Phone.
In the first scene in CONTROL`s board room, Max plays the intercepted audio of a conversation about decaf coffee and muffins, and simultaneously translates it to English. The original conversation is in Persian.
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# The line about a blank essay about existentialism is borrowed from Woody Allen, who used it in his stand-up comedy act as well as in the film Stardust Memories (1980).
When they break into the Disney Hall, they breach sector IG-88. IG-88 is the name of the bounty hunter droid sent after the Millenium Falcon in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
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# Other nods to the original show include: Agent 13 hiding in an unusual spot (he hid all over the place) and his habit of crying (Ship of Spies); the question (and rather crude joke) of whether the Claw might be `the Craw`, as it wasn`t easy to tell which he was saying; the series of opened doors that lead to the phone booth entrance to Control; the phone booth rapid elevator; Siegfried`s line "Schtarker, this is Kaos, we don`t (whatever it is) here!"; the dog named `Fang` (in the original series, he was an agent numbered K13); 99`s deep infatuation with Max; the Cone of Silence not working the way it was supposed to (only did once in the original series, but the chief got trapped beneath it); the shoe phone; the lines "Sorry about that, Chief", "Would you believe...", "the old (something) trick", and "missed me by that much"; the bomb in the piano; the old German driver shouting "Dumkoff!"; Max getting caught in the final sliding door in the entry hall when it doesn`t close right away and he went to check it (although, in the original show, he only got bumped in the nose, not crushed as in the film).
To hear the performance of Beethoven`s 9th, Siegfried tunes the car radio to 91.5 FM. This is the frequency for KUSC, the Classical Music Station in Los Angeles.
SPOILER: Leonard Stern, one of the producers of the original series, has a cameo as the pilot of the airplane that The Chief and Max commandeer.
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