You might be wondering why Sony is so hellbent on reviving “Men In Black,” but there are about 1.6 billion reasons why. That’s how much the Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones trilogy of films made at the worldwide box office, so it makes sense why they don’t want the property collecting dust. And while there has been on-and-off chatter about Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill rolling into the series with some kind of hybrid between “Men In Black” and “21 Jump Street,” Sony isn’t waiting around for that to happen.
Instead, the studio has booked May 17, 2019 for the release of a “Men In Black” spinoff. Matt Holloway and Art Marcum, the writers behind “Iron Man” (cool!) and “Transformers: The Last Knight” (uh…) will be penning the screenplay, about which, of course, no details are being shared just yet. But essentially, Sony is looking to copy what Universal did with “Jurassic World,” by launching a movie set in the roughly the same world as the Smith/Jones flicks (they won’t be returning) but spinning its own new tale.
I dunno, cool beans I guess, but the nostalgia for “Jurassic Park” has lingered far stronger than “Men In Black” (though Steven Spielberg is still making bank as a producer on both franchises). At any rate, “Men In Black World” or whatever will now be facing off against “John Wick 3,” and for my money, I know which one I’d rather see. [Deadline]