MEN IN BLACK 3D - Rewrites and Production Schedule Split

Men in Black 3 will start shooting in New York today, but there's a couple interesting things about the production that I thought I would let you in on. 

First of all, the studio has hired screenwriter Jeff Nathanson to do a little rewrite and polish for part of the script. Nathanson has worked with Steven Spielberg on films such as The Terminal, Catch Me If You Can, and Indiana Jones 4. He's also worked with Brett Ratner on the films Tower Heist and Rush Hour 2 & 3. I don't know how someone goes from working with Spielberg to Ratner, but Nathanson has done just that. He's literally worked for the best and the worst. 

Anyway, there are two big parts to this Men in Black 3 story. One part of the story takes place in the present day, the second part of the story takes place in the past. There's a whole time traveling thing where we will see Josh Brolin playing a younger Agent K in 1969.

Nathanson will be working on the part of the script that deals with the segment of the film that takes place in the past. All of the present day scenes will start shooting today. Once they are finished shooting the present day stuff the production will go on a break for about two months. In February 2011 they will resume production shooting all of the scenes from 1969. I guess that's one way to work around the holidays. Thats not why they did it though producer  Walter Parkes explains,

We had to start shooting this year to take advantage of New York State tax incentives, but we also needed to be able to shoot certain exteriors in warmer weather. So back in July we had the idea to keep the start date but build in a hiatus so we could essentially extend the production to late spring.

Barry Sonnenfeld is directing the film and Will Smith is returning to the role of Agent J along with Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K. Jemaine Clement was also cast as the villain.