MEN IN BLACK
LuckiLy director Barry Sonnenfeld and screenwriter ed Solomon weren’t neuraLyzed after making Men In Black... they Look back on the experience with simon bLand
It doesn’t feel like 22 years ago in some ways but it feels like a really long time ago in other ways,” laughs director Barry sonnenfeld, recalling the shoot for
Men In Black. “i don’t know any franchise that goes five years between the first and second, then ten years between the second and third, but somehow that’s what happened. i’m really proud of the movie, but it was a really hard one to pull off.”
Back in 1997, there was little expectation for sonnenfeld’s high-concept space adventure. Based on a relatively unknown comic book from author lowell Cunningham and illustrator sandy Carruthers, its story focused more on demons, vampires and the undead than the clandestine existence of aliens on earth. it wasn’t until producers Walter f Parkes and laurie Macdonald hired Bill and Ted cocreator ed solomon to pen a script that the Will smith and tommy lee Jones-fronted Men
In Black we know today began to take shape. “it was very imaginative, very dark – very different to what the movie became – but it was
the core idea that i thought was brilliant,” says solomon on first reactions to the comic. “i thought it needed to be a comedy. if you made a movie about the fact that we have aliens living among us that we don’t even know about, and if we could do that in a comedic way, i thought it could be really fun.” With his take locked down, solomon began drafting a story – one which ultimately followed hardened MiB agent k (Jones) and rookie J (smith) on a mission to stop a giant alien cockroach (Vincent d’onofrio) from stealing a galaxy and starting an intergalactic war. “Walter and i pitched the first two acts to the studio and said you’re going to have to read the third in the finished script – which was clever because i don’t think they realised we didn’t actually have a third act,” laughs solomon. “finding it took a long time. it was such a high-concept idea that everyone had a different point-ofview on what the movie should be.” as solomon’s script developed, so did the
Men In Black universe. sonnenfeld signed on as director, swapping the story’s multi-city
narrative for a purely Manhattan backdrop and steven spielberg jumped onboard as executive producer; guiding the film’s script and creature design and ultimately convincing screen veteran tommy lee Jones to don the monochrome suit of MiB alien-buster agent k.
“When Barry got involved he said he wanted to do The French Connection with aliens,” says solomon on the story’s relocation to new york. “We never changed the core idea. it was the same story, just set in Manhattan instead of all over the world.”
With Jones installed, sonnenfeld started the search for agent J, and a fresh-faced newcomer quickly rose to the top of his list. “i remember my wife and i reading the script together,” recalls sonnenfeld. “We finished and i turned to her and said ‘tommy lee Jones’ and she turned to me and said ‘Will smith’. Will had only been in The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air but i always felt that you never want two funny people in your comedy. you need one straight man and one funny man. We were very lucky.”
fUnny Tone
luck aside, there was one small yet crucial aspect that sonnenfeld believes was key to the film’s success: “Men In Black had a very specific tone and we never moved off that tone,” he tells
SFX. “What was hard was maintaining the comedy while you’re trying to save the world and make the audience believe the stakes are really high. tone is a very difficult thing to pull off.” especially when one of your lead actors is unaware of what genre he’s working in. “tommy started first as Will was finishing
Independence Day and tommy and i disagreed for 106 days,” reveals sonnenfeld. “He thought i was trying to make him not funny.
“the first day i worked with him we were doing a scene in the desert where he speaks to an alien named Mikey,” he says, taking us back to the film’s illegal-alien opener. “tommy has a line which is ‘put up your hands and all of your flippers’. it’s my first day working with tommy lee Jones, who’s already intimidating, and he says it as if it’s a comedy line.
“i said, ‘you know, tommy, i think it’s going to be funnier if you don’t acknowledge it’s funny.’ don’t hit the comedy – let the audience decide what’s funny.”
despite the director’s pep talk, Jones continued to amp-up the humour, much to sonnenfeld’s dismay. “He hated me,” he laughs. “tommy wanted to be funny, i didn’t want tommy to be funny. By the end of the film i’m walking up to him with my eyes down and the script out in front of me. i would just point to the line and go, ‘say it like you don’t know it’s funny.’” it wasn’t until the film’s release that Jones realised what genre he was in. “tommy loved it and now we’re best friends,” smiles sonnenfeld. “in every single interview he was being told how funny he was – because he’s never been funny in his life. at every interview, he said the secret to being funny is to stand next to Will smith and do whatever Barry sonnenfeld tells you to do,” chuckles the director. “i just thank god i didn’t give up because if tommy was funny, the tone of the movie would be so off.”
for solomon, the pairing of smith and Jones was a good lesson on economic screenwriting. “tommy was the perfect counterbalance to Will,” says the writer. “i tend to overwrite and tommy would cut out swathes of dialogue and convey an entire paragraph with a simple glance. tommy would trim lines and Will would add. there’s probably a dozen great jokes that Will improvised on set, which is always a gift.”
Meanwhile Men In Black’s aliens, led by Vincent d’onofrio’s edgar-Bug, were taking shape under the expert skills of creature maestro rick Baker. “i’d drive rick crazy,” remembers sonnenfeld. “i’d say, ‘Why do all the aliens look like humans? Create an alien that has no eyes and no mouth.’ He would create this amazing creature and i’d say, ‘that’s great but without eyes how do we know where he’s looking?’ rick would give him eyes and i’d ask, ‘you know, without a mouth, how will we know when he’s talking?’ so rick would give him a mouth,” he smiles. “Before you know it, we’re back to a human-centric alien.”
the shoot spanned most of 1996 and incorporated many last minute script-tweaks during production. one major sticking point was the film’s climax, with sonnenfeld only
landing on J and k’s climactic edgar-Bug battle at the World’s fair shortly before it was shot. “We had an action-adventure comedy with no adventure,” admits sonnenfeld. “our original ending involved Will smith’s J and the edgar creature debating the nature of the universe and humanity’s place in it. i thought: we don’t need more talking, we need some action.”
solomon elaborates on the development of the film’s final battle: “My original ending was more philosophical. to me, it was supposed to embody the idea at the core of the movie, which was humans think one thing is going on but they have absolutely no idea about what’s really going on. i think it was the producer, Walter, who said, ‘What we really need is two guys with guns facing down a big ugly alien.’” sonnenfeld adds, “the ending was written a week before we shot it, but that often happens.”
With its ending in place, Men In Black finally hit screens in June 1997 and was an instant hit. Critics raved over Jones’ stoney delivery, Will smith became a certified star overnight and Baker’s edgar-Bug special effects won an oscar. for sonnenfeld and solomon, it was the perfect pay-off for months of hard work. “We all knew we were on to something interesting and unique,” reflects solomon. “i was very aware at the time that this was one of those rare occurrences where a lot of hard work, trial and error and ups and downs ended with a movie that we can all be really proud of. Being involved in Men In Black has been one of the great blessings of my life. it was such a great moment.” “you never know why something’s going to succeed or fail,” adds sonnenfeld. “When pundits wrote about what the big summer films were going to be, MIB was not in the first five – we weren’t supposed to be the biggest movie of that year. i love how we snuck in under the radar.”
This was one of those rare times where a lot of hard work, trial and error and ups and downs ended with a movie we can all be proud of