Mel Brooks believes that the big screen update of his spy spoof TV series Get Smart will appeal to modern audiences.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, the comedy icon described the film's leading man Steve Carell, taking over the role made famous by Don Adams in the '60s, as "brilliant".

He said: "To choose a guy who's right in the Don Adams groove, you couldn't get a better guy than Steve Carell. And yet he doesn't do Don Adams. He does none of his delivery. He just does Steve Carell."

Brooks added that the spy comedy would appeal to contemporary audiences because it matches people's perceptions about intelligence agencies.

"It's the earnest stupidity of organisations like the CIA," Brooks said. "I would say honest and earnest stupidity. They want to do a good job. But they don't hire enough [multicultural people]. They hire too many WASPs and they get too much white-bread thinking."

Get Smart, starring Carell, Anne Hathaway and Dwayne Johnson, is released in the US next month.