Men in Black 3's production is not easy. (Image: Sony Pictures España (CC) via Flickr)
The film almost never saw the light of day; it had to go through some rough challenges during production.
One of the problems involved choosing a director, which eventually went to the original director Barry Sonnenfeld. Sony considered other directors, but Barry was able to convince the executives that he had envisioned something strong for “Men in Black III” despite previous disputes regarding “Men in Black 2.”
Movie production was rushed during the fall of 2010. According to Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures, “obviously, going into production without a finished script was not ideal. But … we’re not going to wait forever.”
Will Smith also had concerns with parts of the story set during 1969 when Agent J time-traveled to meet the younger version of Agent K. Rewrites have been done, adding millions of dollars to the extravagant budget.
Men in Black III’s challenges did not end after production, as the 250 million dollar-worth film has to consider the fact that the last sequel was shown ten years ago; most of its younger movie goers may have never seen the first two Men in Black movies.
According to Jeff Sagansky, former top executive for Sony, “to come back to a franchise after 10 years and try to recapture the spirit of the original from 15 years ago is very unusual and requires you to be bold creatively.”
Despite these trials, Sony believes that “Men in Black III” will be a huge hit. Surveys from all across the United States, Europe, Brazil and Russia show solid support for the movie.