Men in Black is one of those rare film franchises where the idea of a full-on reboot doesn’t sound like an entirely bad idea when you really think about it. Though Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones won’t be back, the return to MiB headquarters is sure to be a thrilling one, thanks to the promising frontrunner to direct the movie.
Image: Getty
Deadline is reporting that Sony is in late talks with Fate of the Furious director F. Gary Grey to helm a new movie about the secret government organisation that handles Earth’s interactions with aliens. It was previously said to feature two new main characters and reach a global scale.
While no more specific details about the forthcoming movie have been announced, Sony’s desire to snag Grey does say quite a bit about what we might expect. He makes the kind of mind-boggling, big-budget action films that put the original Men in Black to shame, and most of his movies don’t involve spaceships and megalomaniacal aliens.
With the Fast franchise, Grey’s shown that he can elevate material that’s rather… mundane (sorry, racing junkies) and turn it into a narrative and visual spectacle. Deadline notes the next MiB film is meant to relaunch the franchise, so we’ll have to wait and see. Those movies were always fun, but in Grey’s hands, it’s likely that the film will be cranked up to 11.
The as-yet-untitled Men in Black spinoff – which is not that 21 Jump Street crossover – will be executive produced by Steven Spielberg and has a script from Matt Holloway and Art Marcum (Iron Man). It has a US release date from Sony for 14 June 2019.
[Deadline]