Sony is hoping to extend its Men in Black franchise with a script worth remembering.
Chris Bremner has been hired to pen the screenplay for a new feature in the sci-fi series, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. The studio has yet to attach a director or any castmembers.
Adapting Lowell Cunningham’s Marvel Comics series, director Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1997 film Men in Black starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Focusing on a secret government agency that oversees extraterrestrial activity on Earth, the hit movie launched a franchise that saw Smith and Jones return for 2002’s Men in Black II and 2012’s Men in Black 3.
The first film surpassed $580 million at the global box office following its theatrical release on July 2, 1997.
THR’s review offered high praise for the 1997 original: “A terrifically entertaining combination of alien conspiracy fears played for laughs andFrench Connection-meets-Ghostbustersthrills, with a stellar screenplay by Ed Solomon (theBill and Tedfilms, the upcomingX-Men),Men in Blackis so much fun one is actually mildly disappointed when it ends after an economically short 98 minutes.”
The property was rebooted in 2019 with Men in Black: International, starring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. Neither Smith nor Jones appeared in director F. Gary Gray’s feature, which underperformed at the box office.
Bremner’s credits include 2020’s Bad Boys for Life and last year’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die, the third and fourth movie installments in the action-comedy franchise starring Smith and Martin Lawrence. Bremner also worked on Fast and Loose, the Netflix action feature that is in the works and has Smith attached.