No franchise is dead in Hollywood. There’s no such thing. You can always reboot, reimagine, sequelize, or wait it out a few years before an IP makes a comeback.
Case in point: “Men in Black.” Sony Pictures is bringing back the black suits and shades by hiring Chris Bremmer (“Bad Boys for Life”) to write the next installment. That’s not even the big news. Apparently, the idea is to bring back Will Smith as Agent J.
That said, Deadline’s sources stress that Smith is not attached to the project and will not commit to anything until he has read a script.
That 1997 “Men in Black” is great. It remains one of those high-concept studio comedies that shouldn’t have worked as well as it did, yet somehow still felt effortless. The plot — a grumpy NYPD cop (Smith) recruited into a secret agency policing extraterrestrial border control — was really just scaffolding for Barry Sonnenfeld’s attempt at a deadpan, live-action cartoon. Tommy Lee Jones’ stone-faced minimalism bouncing off Smith’s motor-mouthed swagger drove the film; Rick Baker’s gooey creature design was wonderful; it was 98 minutes of sleek, ’90s studio confidence.
As for the succeeding instalments. The 2002 sequel sucked. It was bad, really bad. However, “Men in Black III,” and I agree with Paul Thomas Anderson here, is actually not bad —it semi recaptured some of the charm of the original. That said, the 2019 reboot (“MIB: International”) basically killed the franchise. No need for another film, but Hollywood never listens. We’re stuck in a never-ending franchise loop.
No director is currently attached, and I presume Tommy Lee Jones, 79, has no interest in returning. Let’s wait and see who the director is, but Bremmer’s involvement is suspect at best. He’s only written three films: “Bad Boys for Life,” “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” and—yikes—“The Man from Toronto.” Godspeed to all involved.
Here we have Darren Aronofsky's longtime DP, Matthew Libatique, confirming the two are running AI tests before shooting their next feature together.