‘Men In Black 5’ Is In Development, Sony “Hopes” Will Smith Returns
“We’ll take it from here…” Get ready for Men in Black 5! Whether you asked for it or not, a fifth movie is on the way because Sony obviously will not be satisfied until they have beaten all the franchises in their possession into the ground.
A new film is in development and with a huge, but predictable twist: they want Will Smith’s return to the series. He hasn’t signed the dotted line yet, but the studio “hopes,” Deadline says, he will want to once he has read the script.
The screenplay is written by Bad Boys scribe Chris Bremner, and that franchise is still going strong with Smith all in, so they might be able to persuade him. Who knows?
The trouble is, while the star is trying to climb out of the hole created by his controversies, his tempestuous home life, and the general fatigue for his former omnipresence that crept up, he doesn’t shine as brightly as he used to.
Smith’s recent music comeback flopped hard and embarrassingly, and his box office appeal was already showing signs of slipping. Outside of Bad Boys 3 & 4, and his Oscar-bait turn in King James (which was six years ago, by the way), there’s a paucity in his appearances as of late.
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Then there is the issue with MIB as a series. The last movie was seven years ago and most would rather neuralize themselves than let anyone remind them it happened. The buzz for the whole thing has to be at an all-time low.
Arguably, too, the window to mea culpa and reverse course like Sony did with Ghostbusters is probably closed. However, there may be enough intrigue in Smith coming back to attract a decent audience, even if the film takes so long to make that theaters won’t be a factor when it releases.
Brenner and Smith are already circumventing that concern with their next collaboration, Fast & Loose, at Netflix.
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