Men In Black III was completely Will Smith’s idea

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

This may or may not be the least surprising thing you’ll read all week, but MEN IN BLACK III director Barry Sonnenfield has recently confirmed with UK entertainment magazine Contactmusic that the story/plot device which drives MEN IN BLACK III is wholly Will Smith’s invention.

Says Sonnenfield: ”Will calls me Baz.  When we were shooting ‘Men In Black II’ [in 2002], one night he said ‘Hey Baz, I think I have an idea for number three’. The basic idea was that Will’s character, Agent J, would have to go back into the past to save his partner. It allowed the movie to take place in another era, and us to learn more about Tommy Lee Jones’ character. But it turned out to be a very long process of development, mainly because of the knotting issues of time travel, the time travel thing was really hard.”

Oh, and as for whether shooting a big budget movie like MEN IN BLACK III without a finished script was a good idea or not? ”We knew starting the movie that we didn’t have a finished second or third act. Was it responsible? The answer is, if the movie does as well as I think it will, it was genius. If it’s a total failure, then it was a really stupid idea.”  So let me get this straight: with almost ten years to get a script done, you still couldn’t get it all worked out? Might that maybe be a sign that you’re trying to force something when it just doesn’t really work? I don’t know, Baz…