Sony is gearing up to revive its iconic Men in Black franchise with a script that promises to be a standout. Chris Bremner has been enlisted as the screenwriter for the latest addition to this sci-fi series, as confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter. However, the studio is still in the process of selecting a director and casting members.
The new project is an adaptation of Lowell Cunningham's Marvel Comics series, which first saw the light of day in 1997 with director Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. The film, centered around a secret government agency that oversees extraterrestrial activity on Earth, kicked off 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 went beyond $580 million at the global box office after its release on July 2, 1997.
The original Men in Black was praised by THR as "a terrifically entertaining combination of alien conspiracy fears played for laughs and French Connection-meets-Ghostbusters thrills, with a stellar screenplay by Ed Solomon (the Bill and Ted films, the upcoming X-Men)." The franchise was rebooted in 2019 with Men in Black: International, starring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. However, the film, directed by F. Gary Gray and without Smith or Jones, didn't perform well at the box office.
Bremner's credentials include 2020's Bad Boys for Life and last year's Bad Boys: Ride or Die, the third and fourth installments in the action-comedy franchise starring Smith and Martin Lawrence. He also worked on Fast and Loose, an upcoming Netflix action feature with Smith attached.
