The production of “Men In Black 3” is approaching “Waterworld“-esque proportions. The problems have been well documented but here’s the short version: production started on the film late last year in New York to take advantage of tax rebates. The problem was, there wasn’t a finished script. No matter, filming got underway and the plan was to shoot the present day sequences first (which they did), take a hiatus to nail down the script, and then regroup to do all the time travel stuff. Well, the start date for the second half of the production was slightly pushed as they still continued to tinker with the script and to date, no less than four screenwriters tried to make the script work (David Koepp being enlisted twice in the whole process). And well, the film is still shooting in New York City as you might expect for a movie that has been dragging on forever, costs have risen.
In the midst of a mostly speculative report about Will Smith being a semi-tyrant on set, The Wrap reveals that according to their sources, the budget is now topping $215 million — and that’s after rebates. It puts the cost at twice the budget of “Men In Black 2” and probably doesn’t include the extensive P&A the film is likely to receive. Of course, what Sony is banking on is that Smith — whose star is even bigger now than it was back then — will be able to pull the $441 million worldwide haul of its predecessor and even more when the film hits next year. The only question is, and one that we’ve been asking since the beginning: does anyone even want this sequel?
Anyway, guess we’ll find out soon enough: the movie opens on May 25, 2012 and if Sony were smart, they’d use Comic-Con to (try) and quell the bad mojo around this movie by releasing a clip, a picture, anything to turn the tide because right now, this is “Wild Wild West” all over again.
