The original Men in Black movie is one of those rare summer blockbusters that is about 65 percent smarter than it had any reason to be. The jokes are solid, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones somehow have fantastic chemistry, and the script is so well-polished that it gleams like the burnished chrome shaft of a neuralyzer.
Unfortunately, the sequel managed to completely miss all the magic of its predecessor, and Men in Black 3—while a step in the right direction—never quite managed to come together. Now, an upcoming Men in Black reboot starring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson is going to try it again—and this time, it looks like they’re bringing in an actor with a particular set of skills to help them do it.
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On Tuesday, Variety announced that Liam Neeson is in talks to join the cast of the new MIB movie. If he signs on, Neeson will play the head of the British branch of the secret government organization, where he’ll presumably follow in Rip Torn’s footsteps and try to keep the agency from dissolving into an intergalactic kegger.
Neeson, who’s spent the last few decades playing heroic middle-aged men, announced his retirement from action movies last September, but apparently, that might not stretch as far as the action-comedy genre.
There’s not a lot of news about the plot of the upcoming film yet, though some early rumors say it’ll focus on Thompson’s character, Em, who joins the MIB in London and “is paired with the former ace Agent H, played by Hemsworth.” The new movie also isn’t expected to be a hard reboot of the franchise, meaning the story will take place somewhere inside the same universe as the first three movies and we’ll probably get a Frank the Pug cameo.
The movie will be directed by F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton, The Fate of the Furious) with screenwriters Matt Holloway and Art Marcum working on the script. It’s on track to hit theaters in summer of 2019, but hopefully it’ll include Liam Neeson slipping into the last suit he’ll ever wear or whatever.
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