MTV caught up with
Men in Black 3's Barry Sonnenfeld, and had a rather revealing interview with the director of the film. He gives brand new details about the story while providing a brief outline of all three acts.
Sonnenfeld: In the first act, Agent J is a bit fed up with how closed K is as a person, how he feels he needs to open up and communicate more, but it's not happening. K says to J, "You know how I live such a happy life? I don't ask questions I don't want to know the answers to." At the end of the first act, Jemaine's character, Boris the Animal, breaks out of prison and finds a guy who has a time device. He says he's going back to 1969 to do something to the man who shot off his arm — because Boris only has half an arm — and of course, that man is Agent K. At the end of that first act, Tommy's character disappears, and no one remembers that he ever existed... except Agent J, who realizes that someone went back in time and did something to Agent K. So he has to track down who gave Boris the device, and travel back to 1969 with one warning: He has to stay away from his old partner.
MTV: Which, of course, he does not listen to.
Sonnenfeld: What happens, actually, is he gets arrested by Agent K — now Josh Brolin — in 1969. The second and third act is all about tracking down Boris and Will renewing his friendship with a different K than the K he knows from 40 years in the future. What's really cool is that J is constantly wondering why this guy who seems sort of open and happy became the sort of curmudgeon that has been his partner for the last 14 years. He makes a discovery about that. So, "Men in Black 3" is by far the most emotional of the movies. It has a really surprising ending.
One of the things that I like about this film is that they boldly cast the Flight of the Conchords' Jermaine Clement as the main villain. Very surprising since Jermaine has spent most of his time in showbiz getting laughs, and now he'll have to show a menacing side.
Sonnenfeld: Jemaine delivers a totally villainous performance. If there's any comedy at all, it's just through frustration. [Laughs] The great thing about Earth is that it can be a frustrating place for aliens. We don't think clearly, we're not logical all the time. But Jemaine is not on board this movie for comic relief. His performance is really strong and really villainous. Think about it: If you had not seen the first "Men in Black," and people had told you that Tommy lee Jones was funny, you wouldn't have believed it. This is the same thing — no one is trying to be funny. I want my actors to be real. If it's a funny situation, I want it to be funny. But I don't want anyone to play to the comedy. Let the audience find the comedy; I don't want to tell any [of the cast or crew] where it is. So, Jemaine does not deliver a comedic performance. While there are moments of humor that the audience will find funny, Jemaine himself is not being funny, if you get that.
MTV: Wrapping up, you talked about how the ending of this film is "surprising." As much as you can tease, do you view this film as an ending to the "Men in Black" trilogy? Or are there ways to continue the story?
Sonnenfeld: The fantastic thing about "Men in Black 3" is that it totally closes out the trilogy, it answers questions that you didn't even know you should be asking, it leaves you emotionally warm and sad and happy, and it could also reboot the franchise. But I can't even begin to tell you how to interpret all of that. [Laughs] But I would say this: If your interpretation is that "Men in Black 4" will only star the worm guys and Frank the pug, you are wrong.
Men in Black 3 is directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, based on the Malibu Comic written by Lowell Cunningham. The movie stars: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Jemaine Clement, Alice Eve, Emma Thompson, Bill Hader, Nicole Scherzinger and Michael Stuhlbarg. MIB3 will be released in theaters on May 25, 2012.