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Mel Brooks, Judd Apatow, Patton Oswalt and fellow comedians descended on the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on Tuesday to celebrate the premiere of “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!”
“I’m very happy about anything that has to do with me that’s positive,” Mr. Brooks said on the red carpet. He smiled as he posed with family members and colleagues, striking showy poses for the photographers.
The two-part documentary, directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio, offers a deep look at the life and work of Mr. Brooks, who turned 99 last June.
“It’s very busy-making,” Mr. Brooks said of the film, which debuts Thursday on HBO Max. “It’s also really lovely that human beings, per se, like my comedy.”
“The 99 Year Old Man!” — a title that riffs on “The 2000 Year Old Man,” the famous sketch he did with Carl Reiner — chronicles Mr. Brooks’s romance with his second wife, the actress Anne Bancroft, who died in 2005, and his decades-long bromance with Mr. Reiner, who died in 2020.
It also features interviews with influential comedians, including Jerry Seinfeld, Ben Stiller, Dave Chappelle and Adam Sandler, and intersperses clips from Mr. Brooks’s shows and movies, from “Get Smart” and “The Producers” to “Young Frankenstein” and “Blazing Saddles.”
“He wasn’t afraid to show his influences, which is really ballsy,” Mr. Oswalt said of Mr. Brooks’s bold satires.
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