Tuesday, on the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, Mel Brooks was a guest to promote his upcoming book release, “Young Frankenstein: A Mel Brooks Book: The Story of the Making of the Film”. No more Gene. I can’t call him.
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Also: Brooks discusses pissing out of his childhood apartment window in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and letting his brother take the fall for it.
Mel was one of a very select few people that was privy to the knowledge that Gene Wilder was ill.
Brooks went on to recall his first film collaboration with Wilder, 1967 The Producers, a project Gene was convinced would never get funded.
It was in 1991 that Gene Wilder turned in his badge and quit the big screen, his final movie being “Another You” with long-time collaborator Richard Pryor, sadly a critical and box office failure.
While the two were working on “Blazing Saddles”, Brooks saw Wilder writing on a legal pad, “I looked at the top of it and it said ‘Young Frankenstein, ‘” Brooks reminisced.
So many of today’s stars in comedy were influenced by the likes of Wilder and Brooks, so it’s nice to hear the 90-year-old filmmaker speak so highly of his former colleague. You know it’s going to happen, but it’s still a shock. “I met him when my late wife Anne Bancroft was doing ‘Mother Courage, ‘ a Bertolt Brecht play, and Gene was in it”, Brooks began.
“He said, ‘They’re always laughing at me”.
“I think it’s an insult”, he said of the reboot. According to Brooks, Wilder said, “when you get the money”. We’re going to make the movie. And then I hugged him.
“He blessed every film we did with his magic and he blessed me with his friendship”, Brooks wrote.
The whole chat is well worth your time and gives a greater insight into why Wilder became more and more selective about his projects in the latter stages of his career.
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“He simply couldn’t bear the idea of one less smile in the world”, Walker-Pearlman said.
