Released in 2019 and broadcast this Sunday evening on France 2, the reboot of the Men in Black franchise, called “Men in Black International”, experienced a very stormy and tense production, punished by a rather serious failure in theaters…
Released in June 2019, the reboot of the Men in Black franchise, called Men in Black International, did not quite shine in the Box Office firmament. The film by F. Gary Gray, starring the tandem Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, only grossed a little over $253 million at the worldwide Box Office. Very low, considering the production budget of the film, around $110 million, to which we must of course add the marketing budget…
Just five days after the film’s release, the Hollywood Reporter revealed the stormy behind-the-scenes of the production, to say the least, highlighting the various changes that took place before and during filming.
In the background of this complicated adventure, the rivalry which has continued between director F. Gary Gray and producer Walter Parkes (already known for having worked on the first films in the saga).
According to the Hollywood Reporter article, the latter would have imposed numerous changes to the initial script written by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, before but also during filming, even going so far as to provide new pages every day to Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, who did not hesitate to hire their own dialogue writers on set… Little icing on the cake: the actress also refused to utter a famous line once spoken by Will Smith…
Sony Pictures
Still according to the Hollywood Reporter, the initial script for the film was “more subversive and more anchored in current events”, even addressing the debate around immigration. As for the villain(s), in the very first versions they were the four members of a music group in the style of the Beatles, having the ability to merge into a single entity.
Add to this the fact that director F. Gary Gray reportedly attempted to leave the project several times, while two edits (his own and that of producer Walter Parkes) were submitted to the studio, which ultimately opted for Parkes’s. Good atmosphere…
The reasons for the failure… According to the CEO of Sony Pictures
A month after this big reveal, it is the turn of a Sony executive to speak on the subject, which had not been the case until then. And what’s more, a senior manager, since it was the big boss himself, Tom Rothman.
In an interview given to Business Insiderhe expressed his disappointment, where the Major hoped to relaunch a once lucrative franchise, and repeat the Box Office hold-up that was the reboot of Jumanji, which grossed more than $960 million, for a lower budget to 100 million.
“Did we miss out? Men in Black International wasn’t particularly a financial disappointment, because ultimately it’s going to gross between $245 and $300 million at the worldwide box office. But it didn’t “is obviously not at all what we were hoping for for a reboot regarding this license” pleaded the person concerned.
Sony Pictures
“I think the audience really liked the film, and the casting was great; Tessa and Chris did a great job. But if we made any mistakes, I think it was mainly in the lack of strong ideas in the story. Especially if you compare it to Jumanji, which had a really, really strong idea.” We obviously can’t blame Tom Rothman for putting forward the argument of the lack of strong ideas on this opus, but it’s still very short…
And the person concerned continues: “the lesson of all this is that you have to continue to take risks. But you also have to manage them. In the case of MIB International, we had two co-producers, so the risks were calculated and managed. I sincerely think that you can’t eliminate risk in the film industry. If you try to do that, you kill creativity, and if you kill creativity, you eliminate success.”
If Sony has not definitively thrown out the franchise, it still has a lot of problems in its wings. Not to mention that Will Smith has no desire to get back into it. “Three films are enough” he recently blurted out.