Rob Reiner. Picture: file
Legendary filmmaker Rob Reiner will seem posthumously within the upcoming HBO documentary Mel Brooks: The 99 12 months Outdated Man!, providing heartfelt insights into the a long time?lengthy friendship between his late father, Carl Reiner, and comedy icon Mel Brooks.
The 2?half documentary debuts on January 22 and 23 on HBO and was directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio.
Reiner’s contributions to the movie have been recorded in Could 2024, earlier than his tragic demise in December 2025, when he and his spouse, Michele Singer Reiner, have been killed of their Los Angeles house.
His look provides an emotional resonance to the undertaking as he displays on his father’s profound relationship with Brooks, which spanned 70 years of collaboration and friendship.
Within the documentary, Reiner recollects early recollections of assembly Brooks when he was a younger youngster and the way the comic grew to become a fixture within the Reiner household house.
He describes how his father would play straight man to Brooks of their well-known comedy routines, similar to The 2000 12 months Outdated Man, and notes, “My father was like a second banana. He by no means felt like he wanted to be the star. He would push Mel right into a nook that might make Mel explode with creativity and humor.” Reiner additionally gives touching reflections on Brooks’ reactions after Carl’s demise. “Mel was there when my dad died,” he says, recounting how Brooks discovered Carl after he collapsed at house. “My dad died proper after that.”
Reiner says Brooks continued visiting the household house “for months and months and months” afterward to look at tv and share dinner, underlining the depth of their bond.
Brooks, now almost 100, seems within the movie as effectively, recounting his efforts to maintain paramedics engaged on Carl’s behalf and his personal battle with loss. “I simply did not need him to go. I would not settle for it. I beloved him a lot,” Brooks shares, capturing his grief and admiration for his pal.
Reiner was additionally a liberal political activist who advocated for causes similar to LGBTQ rights, early childhood training, and environmental safety, and who campaigned for quite a lot of Democratic candidates. Reiner chaired the 1998 marketing campaign to move California’s First 5 childhood training initiative, and in 2008 he and his spouse, Michele, co-founded the American Basis for Equal Rights, which initiated the courtroom problem in opposition to California’s same-sex marriage ban.
