If they ever create a Mount Rushmore-style tribute to the greatest comedians in American history, Mel Brooks’s face would surely be carved in rock. Hand a chisel to Judd Apatow and he’d start the work.

“[Mel’s] the reason why so many of us went into comedy because he was a master at directing, writing, producing, as a performer, as a standup,” Apatow tells Deadline. “He gave us all hope that you could do this kind of bold work.”

Apatow explores the legend’s incredible career in the two-part documentary Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!, nominated for six Primetime Emmy Awards – tied for the most of any nonfiction project this year. Leading the recognition — nominations for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special and Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program, for Apatow and co-director Michael Bonfiglio.

“I think he always had a moral center,” Apatow says of Brooks, “even though he never really bragged about it. He was always attacking Nazis and fascism and the government mistreating its people and racism. And he found a way to be piss-your-pants funny while mocking all these people who need it.”

“He’s always about funny, but there’s always something more there,” adds Bonfiglio. “And I think that’s what helps his stuff endure.”

Strictly speaking, the film’s title could be updated. Mel Brooks indeed was 99 when the documentary premiered on HBO in January. But on June 28, he turned 100, just a few days before the Emmy nominations were announced. Apatow says consideration was given to waiting until Brook’s centenary to debut the film.

“At some point, HBO was like, ‘Do you want to air it later, to hit the hundred [mark]?’” Apatow recalls. “And we said, ‘Let’s just get this thing on.’ 99 sounds cool enough.”

In recent years, Apatow and Bonfiglio have been documenting some of comedy’s most brilliant minds, like George Carlin – another mega-talent who could go on Mount Rushmore. Their 2-part George Carlin’s American Dream won the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special in 2022. The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, directed by Apatow and co-executive produced by Bonfiglio, won that same marquee category in 2018.

“They’re people who have lived and worked in show business, but we always try to get to the more human, universal qualities,” Bonfiglio says of their documentary subjects. “That’s just one of the things that we get excited about and get moved ourselves about looking at these stories.”

Apatow and Bonfiglio also pursue separate projects, of course.

“I’m working on a documentary right now about [musician] Billy Strings,” Apatow tells us. “Michael’s working on a documentary about Kris Kristofferson. But I think the comedy will always dominate what I do. It’s all about finding subjects that have something to say that feels special. Mel Brooks never really opened up like this before. This is the first time he let his guard down. And just as a fan of comedy and his work, I think we both were interested in knowing who he was. What’s it like to go through everything from the Depression to Trump? And so, I think we got very lucky that he was willing to trust us with his full story.”

In the narrative/fiction realm, Apatow is completing work on The Comeback King, a comedy he wrote with Glen Powell in which Powell plays a Country Western star whose career has imploded.

“Glen’s a great writer… It’s been really funny just being in the foxhole with him and he really makes me laugh,” Apatow shares. “We’re trying to make a big comedy for the theaters. The theaters need them, and we’re going to try to show that people still want them.”

As Deadline reported, The Comeback King is due for release in February 2027. Apatow updated us on another of his scripted projects, a film with comedian Nikki Glaser.

“Nikki is working on a screenplay right now,” Apatow says. “Obviously, she’s a ridiculously talented and fascinating person. And I think it’s clear to everybody that we would love a Nikki Glaser film. Hopefully, we’re getting close to a draft and something that can happen next year.”

He adds, “It’s years and years of conversations that lead to this type of work, but I’ve known her a long time and this is something we’re very excited about.”

Apatow’s directorial work in comedy film includes This Is 40, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Knocked Up, the latter a 2007 classic starring Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl. It almost starred Anne Hathaway. Rogen recently told the A24 Podcast that Hathaway quit the movie after becoming uncomfortable with a scene that would have showed her giving birth to a child sired by Rogen’s character, Ben Stone.

“Crowning is a tough one. She didn’t want the crowning of the baby to be visually representative,” Rogen said on the podcast. “She felt that it was not her brand.”

Speaking with Deadline, Apatow more-or-less confirmed the story.

“Anne Hathaway is amazing and obviously everything worked out for everybody in all respects there,” Apatow says. “And that kind of thing happens when you’re trying to figure out what everyone’s comfortable with and what works for the film.”

Rogen, presumably, was always the first choice to portray Stone. Or was he?

“It’s funny, we made this short film when we were shooting Knocked Up called Finding Ben Stone and the idea was that Seth was the 10th choice to play the part,” Apatow reveals. “While we shot the movie, we had all of these actors come and they would shoot the scene with Katherine Heigl and then I would fire them because it wasn’t going well. And so, Michael Cera did it and Danny McBride. And then I thought I could be the lead of the movie. It’s something that we were having fun with the challenge of getting everything to line up.”

Things are lining up splendidly for Apatow. In addition to all his upcoming projects, in January at Sundance he unveiled another comedy-themed documentary, Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story, that he co-directed with Neil Berkeley. And in September he and his collaborators will go for six awards at the Creative Arts Emmys for Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! In the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special category, it’s up against several other celebrity-themed films — ones on John Candy, Martin Short, and Jayne Mansfield, mother of Mariska Hargitay.

“I’ve always loved the deep profile,” he says. “The thing that all of these films that were nominated have in common is they’re very honest and go all the way. I think these are all pretty amazing pieces of work.”