Just because Men in Black III has experienced some bumps and bruises along the course of its production doesn’t mean that the MIB franchise isn’t still a Hollywood heavyweight. Released in 1997 and 2002 respectively, let us not forget that the first two installments in the franchise garnered more than a combined $1 billion at the worldwide box office against an approximate combined budget of $230 million. With this blockbuster status in mind, Sony Pictures Entertainment and IMAX Corporation apparently have similarly high hopes for the third installment as they have announced that Men in Black III will be digitally remastered and released in IMAX 3D when it hits theaters worldwide on May 25, 2012. According to Sony Pictures Releasing president Rory Bruer:

“Releasing a film in IMAX 3D signals an event release, and Men in Black III on Memorial Day weekend certainly qualifies in a big way. We couldn’t be more excited about how MIB III will look and sound in IMAX theatres.”

As a quick reminder, the film is directed by franchise mainstay Barry Sonnenfeld and stars Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Alice Eve. While plot details are not available in abundance, we do know that the film will feature a time-traveling element that sees Agent J (Smith) go back in time to save a young Agent K (Brolin) while averting a world-ending disaster.

Just a little while ago, I posted the first official posters for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Total Recall, Underworld 4, and The Amazing Spider-Man as Sony has them on display at the Hard Rock Hotel here at Comic-Con.  A few minutes after posting the article, I made my way inside the Convention to pick up my press credential and found the first official banner/poster for Will Smith’s Men in Black 3.  While it only features the logo and release date, it’s the first time Sony has released any promotional image for the movie.  Hit the jump to check it out.

Director Barry Sonnenfeld and acclaimed comics writer Grant Morrison (The Invisibles) are teaming up for Dominion: Dinosaurs Versus Aliens.  Sonnenfeld will direct and Morrison will write the graphic novel and the screenplay.  The story takes place on a secret pre-historic Earth where aliens invade and super-intelligent dinosaurs are the planet’s only hope.  If the aliens have a device that chucks giant meteors at the planet, then spoiler alert: they won.  Also, I’m not sure how highly-intelligent dinosaurs behave.  Do they smoke pipes and read The Economist?

While the premise does seem like it came about because someone saw a kid playing with his dinosaur and aliens toys, I find it somewhat intriguing since I have no idea how they’ll introduce dialogue into the movie.  Will everything be subtitled?  If the dinosaurs talk, how does that not look silly?  Also, can aliens please get a break?  We mutilated them earlier this year in Battle: Los Angeles, and they’re going to be fighting against cowboys this summer.  Are we sending these movies into space as a warning?  In any event, the graphic novel will be published later this year.  Sonnenfeld is currently at work on another alien flick, Men in Black III.

A couple more set photos have surfaced from the set of Men in Black 3. The film has gone through some very public script issues, but it appears that they sorted everything out. These set photos give another look at Will Smith and Josh Brolin as a young Agent K, following the first batch of set photos from earlier this month. Given the diner setting and the car parked outside, it’s safe to assume this takes place in the 60’s (the film involves Smith’s character traveling back in time to find the young Agent K).

Hit the jump to check out the photos. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, the film also stars Tommy Lee Jones, Alice Eve, Emma Thompson, Nicole Scherzinger, Rip Torn and Johnny Knoxville.  Men in Black 3 opens in 3D on May 25, 2012.

It looks like Men in Black 3 must have sorted out its script issues (whether those issues were sorted out successfully remains to be seen) because filming has resumed on the flick and we now have our first look at Josh Brolin who plays the younger version of Tommy Lee Jones’ character, Agent K.  For those unfamiliar with the plot, the story this time around involved Agent J (Will Smith) going back to the 1960s to save K and thus prevent a universe-ending catastrophe.  If you can imagine Josh Brolin with slicked-back hair and wearing a black suit and tie, then you have a pretty good idea of what the character looks like.  If you can’t imagine that, then hit the jump and check out some set photos.

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, the film also stars Alice Eve, Emma Thompson, Nicole Scherzinger, Rip Torn and Johnny Knoxville.  Men in Black 3 opens in 3D on May 25, 2012.

Barry Sonnenfeld’s Men in Black III has had an unorthodox production schedule.  The film started shooting in November with an incomplete script, scheduled a hiatus from December to mid-February to fix the rest of the script, and then pick back up and finish the movie.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony Pictures took this bizarre route because they wanted to take advantage of tax breaks in New York City and spring weather.

However, the hiatus has now passed and the script still isn’t finished.  As we reported last week, screenwriter David Koepp (Spider-Man) has been brought in to fix the script by Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder) and later Jeff Nathanson (Rush Hour 2).  But THR reports that those re-writes aren’t going smoothly as the project is caught between Sonnenfeld, producer Walter Parkes, and star Will Smith.  Hit the jump for more details.

Production on Barry Sonnenfeld’s Men in Black III went into its planned hiatus last November to handle issues with the script.  That hiatus was set to finish in February, but was recently pushed back to March 28th.  According to Deadline, blockbuster scribe David Koepp (Spider-Man) has been brought in to work on the script for the next several weeks.

The story for the third involvement involves the movie’s villain (Jemaine Clement) traveling back in time to kill Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones), but that assassination will set off a chain of events that will destroy the world.  Agent J (Will Smith) must travel back in time to protect Agent K and the universe.  Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder) wrote the original draft of the script, and then Jeff Nathanson (Rush Hour 2) was brought on board to punch up the time-traveling scenes.  There are no details on what parts of the script require Koepp’s attention, but Sony insists that the 3D film will make its May 25, 2012 release date.  The movie also stars Rip Torn, Alice Eve, Emma Thompson, and Josh Brolin.

The oft-delayed production of Men in Black III just hit another bump in the road. Director Barry Sonnenfeld rolled cameras on the flick back in November, with production set to take a two-month hiatus from December to February to work on script issues, after which everyone would head back to work to finish the film up. Well, it appears that those script issues haven’t been quite cleared up yet, as production has now been moved back to March 28^th.

24 Frames reports that filming on the 3D flick was set to resume this week, but producers put the kibosh on that and slated production to resume in one month’s time. Sonnefeld and company shot most of the present day-set scenes before the year was out, and were set to come back this month to roll on the time-travel scenes (involving Josh Brolin as a young Agent K), which were to have been cleaned up in a script rewrite. Hit the jump for more.

The oft delayed production of the third entry in the popular Men in Black franchise is about to begin filming, but the shooting schedule has just taken an unusual turn.  Production on the film is set to begin tomorrow, but the cast and crew will take a two-month hiatus when they wrap for the holidays. The LA Times reports that the plan for the 3D film is to shoot through Christmas week, and then shut down production until mid-February. The project seemed to be rolling right along, with copious amounts of casting news/rumors in the past few weeks, but it appears that there are a few problems behind the scenes.

Apparently screenwriter Jeff Nathanson (Catch Me if You Can) is being brought in to work on a new draft of the script, previously written by Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder). Specifically, scenes surrounding the time-travel aspect of the film involving a young Agent Kay being played by Josh Brolin, are said to have some issues.  For much more on the hiatus, hit the jump.

Along with the promo posters for The Smurfs, Collider reader Tom also sent us some artwork for Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man reboot, the animated film Arthur Christmas, and Men in Black III.  The Spider-Man in 3D logo is the same as the one we saw back in June.  However, the promo image for Arthur Christmas shows that aliens will somehow be involved in this holiday feature.  As for Men in Black III, the logo is the same as before except the Roman numeral in the middle is gone and it’s “MIB³“.  That’s right: they’re going exponential this time out.

Hit the jump to check out the posters and learn more about each of these 3D films.  The Spider-Man 3D reboot is due out on July 3, 2012; Arthur Christmas is slated for November 11, 2011, and Men in Black III is set for May 25, 2012.

Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) has been cast as the villain in Men in Black III.  And just like that, I’m interested in a new Men in Black movie.  Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, and director Barry Sonnenfeld are all returning, and as we previously reported, Josh Brolin is on board to play the younger version of Jones’ character, Agent K.  Nothing is known about Clement’s character (or even the film’s overall story) other than the character’s name is “Yaz”.  I will pray every night that there’s a promotional campaign involving the birth control pill of the same name.

Men in Black III will be in 3D and is slated to hit theaters on May 25, 2012.  Clement can next be seen this summer in the comedy Dinner for Schmucks.

Columbia Pictures has announced that Men in Black III will be in 3D and hit theaters on May 25, 2012.  In their press release, Columbia (which is owned by Sony Pictures) confirms that Will Smith and Barry Sonnenfeld will return to star and direct, respectively.  However, the press release clarifies that Tommy Lee Jones is not yet attached, but is in “advanced negotiations”.  The studio also revealed that Josh Brolin (who was rumored to be circling the film) is in talks to play a young version of Tommy Lee Jones’ character, Agent K (a theory that was floated when Brolin’s name first cropped up in connection to MIB 3).  While I don’t think we need a third Men in Black movie, having Brolin pay a young Tommy Lee Jones is kind of brilliant.

It’s also interesting to note that we previously assumed that Men in Black III would be aiming for a summer 2011 release so Sony would have a fighter in the summer blockbuster war.  I don’t currently have any theories as to why they’re holding it for so long.

Hit the jump to check out the full press release.

Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black) is achin’ for some bacon. DreamWorks Animation has approached Sonnenfeld to develop and direct an animated comedy based on the Pig Scrolls (via Pajiba), a popular young adult novel by Paul Shipton. Set in Ancient Greece, the story stars Gryllus, formerly a sailor with Odysseus, who was bewitched by the enchantress Circe and transformed into a pig. His personal quest to become human again leads him into a far larger adventure where he must stop the deadly Atomos Device from being detonated and destroying the cosmos. Naturally, sly, albeit anachronistic, nods to Greek history and mythology abound and most of the pantheon makes an appearance.

Riding the Grecian wave of Clash of the Times and Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief, Pig Scrolls joins Hercules and Jason and the Argonauts in the copycat queue. As Sonnenfeld is also attached to Men in Black III, The Spellman Files and Swift it is still too soon to pencil his name in as director. Pajiba notes, however, that of all the projects, Pig Scrolls is the most developed so it may have the inside track.

Variety reports that DreamWorks Animation is looking to produce an adaptation of Gil’s All Fright Diner.  The 2006 novel by A. Lee Martinez tells the story of a vampire and werewolf, who happen to be friends, that stop by a diner one night to only end up having to deal with zombies and having to save the world.   Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black, Get Shorty) is attached to direct the project from a script by Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff, who previously wrote Kung Fu Panda for the studio.  The writing duo also wrote the upcoming Ridley Scott directed Robin Hood.

Hero Complex reports that Josh Brolin, a man on a mission to become one of the coolest actors around (and succeeding), may be putting on the black shades, sharp suit, and protecting the Earth from the scum of the universe in Men in Black 3.  His role is still subject to speculation but there have been some interesting theories circulating which cast him as either K’s (Tommy Lee Jones) replacement or a younger version of K.

Placed in this context, it looks like Jones won’t be returning but Will Smith is committed to returning for the third go-around.  Working from a script by Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder), Sony wants to get the film into production in 2010 although it lacks a green light and having director Barry Sonnenfeld return is still tentative.  It may also be a bit of an issue for Brolin as he’s showing no sign of slowing down with roles in both the Coen Brothers’ True Grit and the mafia crime drama Cartel on his schedule for the first half of 2010 so if they want him (and they should; the dude is great and it’s looking like Jonah Hex could push him over the top), they’ll have to try and lock him down and kick MIB 3 into high gear.  Whether anyone actually wants a third Men in Black movie is another matter entirely.