In an alternate reality, one not too different from our own, the movie-going public almost received something completely unprecedented and wildly bonkers: a crossover between theJump Streetmovies ofChanning TatumandJonah Hill, and theMen in Blackfranchise. In our reality, the stars didn’t align and, instead, we’re gettingMen In Black: International, a continuation of the buddy-cop alien movies withTessa Thompson andChris Hemsworthas the new leads.
“I wasn’t so much involved in that first conversation,” franchise producerWalter Parkesmentions of the crossover idea while on the set ofInternationalin London. But, he does explain why it didn’t work out.
“I got a phone [call] at the time from the head of the studio who said, ‘Pull over. We have to tell you the greatest idea. What about mashing up the two franchises?’” Parkes recalls. “By the way, at first I thought, ‘Well, yeah, that’s interesting,’ but it was more of aJump Streetmovie, honestly, with those guys going toMen In Black.”
He “wasn’t surprised,” frankly, that the script couldn’t “get there.”
“The two franchises have such utterly different tones,” he says. “Jump Streettakes very classic cop things and plays it very out there and crazy and broad, and we [inMen In Black] take very strange cop-sized fiction situations and play it very straight, so it was very hard to find a tone that worked — but the theory of it was great.”
Parkes further explains how, “at their heart,” theMen In Blackfilms are buddy-cop movies and the humor comes from playing with the conventions that come with that sub-genre. “The comedy inMen In Blackcomes from shaking down an informant, but in this case the informant’s a pug alien, but you don’t play the joke. You just let the situation be the joke.”
The next phase of theMen In Blackfranchise, under the direction ofThe Fate of the Furious’F. Gary Gray, now comes as asInternationaljaunt to MIB headquarters in London, where newly probational Agent M (Thompson) is paired with high and mighty Agent H (Hemsworth).
Their “north star” for the script, Parkes notes, was the story of Agent M, who, as a young girl, has an alien encounter involving the Men In Black. She remains un-neuralized and spends the following years tracking down and trying to become one of these mysterious agents.
“If the first three movies were New York City cop movies,” Parkes says, “this should be an international movie.”
Men In Black: Internationalopens in theaters on June 14th.
