Development Men in Black (1997) The film is loosely based upon the comic book
The Men in Black by
Lowell Cunningham. Producers
Walter F. Parkes and
Laurie MacDonald optioned the rights to
The Men in Black in 1992 and hired
Ed Solomon to write a very faithful script. Parkes and MacDonald wanted Barry Sonnenfeld as director because he had helmed the darkly humorous
The Addams Family and its sequel
Addams Family Values. Sonnenfeld was attached to
Get Shorty (1995), so they approached
Les Mayfield to direct, as they had heard about the positive reception to
his remake of
Miracle on 34th Street. They actually saw the film later and decided it was inappropriate.
Men in Black was delayed to allow Sonnenfeld to make it his next project after
Get Shorty. Much of the initial script drafts were set underground, with locations ranging from
Kansas to
Washington, D.C. and
Nevada. Sonnenfeld decided to change the location to New York City because the director felt New Yorkers would be tolerant of aliens who behaved oddly while disguised. He also felt that many of the city's structures resembled flying saucers and rocket ships. Production designer
Bo Welch designed the MIB headquarters with a 1960s tone in mind, because that was when the organization was formed. He cited influences from Finnish architect
Eero Saarinen, who designed a terminal at
John F. Kennedy International Airport. Being the arrival point of aliens on Earth, Welch felt MIB HQ had to resemble an airport. Filming began in March 1996. Five months into the shoot, the crew realized their ending was unexciting. It was originally meant to be a humorous existential debate between Agent J and the Bug, and five potential replacements were discussed. One of these had Laurel Weaver being neuralyzed and K remaining an agent. The change to a fight sequence annoyed Rick Baker, as their animatronic Bug had to be replaced with
computer-generated imagery. Further changes were made during post-production to simplify the plotline involving the possession of the tiny galaxy. The Arquillians would hand over the galaxy to the Baltians, ending a long war. The bugs need to feed on the casualties of the war and steal their remains to continue the war. Through changing subtitles, the images on MIB's main computer and Frank the Pug's dialogue, the Baltians were eliminated from the plot. Earth goes from being potentially destroyed in the crossfire between the two races to being possibly destroyed by the Arquillians to prevent the bugs from getting the galaxy. Sonnenfeld took issue with the producers' focus on the love story between Will Smith's and Rosario Dawson's characters, saying that "I learned on
Wild Wild West that audiences didn't want to see Will as the straight man. And until Tommy comes back into the movie, by definition Will's the straight man". The climax of the second film was originally to have taken place at New York City's
World Trade Center, but was changed following the destruction of the buildings in the
September 11 attacks. This also led to the ending being refilmed. Supervising sound editor
Skip Lievsay used a
Synclavier to recreate and improve the original recording of the neuralyzer sound effect from the first film (which was the sound of a strobe flash as it recycles) by removing some distortion. For the special effects scene where the subway train is attacked by Jeff the Worm, a specially designed vise was used to crush a subway car and make it look as if it had been bitten in half. The film was first announced on April 1, 2009, by
Sony Pictures Entertainment president Rory Bruer during a Sony
ShoWest presentation. By October,
Etan Cohen had been hired to write the screenplay. As of March 2010,
Will Smith remained undecided whether to join this film or another,
The City That Sailed. Sonnenfeld in May confirmed the return of the protagonists played by
Tommy Lee Jones and Smith. Both had expressed interest in 2008 in reprising their roles. Other staff includes
Walter F. Parkes and
Laurie MacDonald as producers, with
Steven Spielberg as executive producer; all were producers of the two previous films. In June, writer
David Koepp was hired to rewrite the Cohen script. In June, the fan site SonyInsider.com posted what it described as a "clip [that] debuted at an exclusive Sony 3D TV launch event at Sony Pictures Studios", showing Smith dressed as Agent J wearing
3-D glasses and stating: "I know what you're thinking — 'M.I.B.', 3-D, we're going to be blowing stuff up and all that. But that's not really what we're doing right now. We're here for one purpose, and for one purpose only: Just to let you know that I'm about to make 3-D look good". A teaser poster for the film was also released on September 21. A third writer,
Jeff Nathanson, was hired in November to rewrite the time-travel segment of the script in which the story takes place in 1969. Nathanson and Koepp, along with producer Spielberg, had previously worked together on the 2008 film
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Men in Black: International (2019) In 2018,
Chris Hemsworth was attached to star in the film, directed by
F. Gary Gray.
Tessa Thompson joined the cast, while
Liam Neeson was cast as the head of the UK branch of the agency. The film's script was written by
Art Marcum and Matt Holloway and would be produced by
Laurie MacDonald and
Walter Parkes.
Kumail Nanjiani,
Rafe Spall, and
Les Twins were added to the cast of the film.
Danny Elfman, who scored the first three
Men in Black films, returned to compose the score for the film alongside
Chris Bacon.
Principal photography on the film began on July 9, 2018, at
Leavesden Studios and on location in
London, and continued in
Morocco,
Italy, and
New York City.
Emma Thompson reprised her role as Agent O in the film.
Rebecca Ferguson joined the cast of the film. Filming was wrapped on October 17. Visual effects for the film were provided by
Double Negative and supervised by Alessandro Ongaro with the help of
Rodeo FX,
Sony Pictures Imageworks and
Method Studios. ==Reception==