‘Men In Black III’ Delayed Again Due To Ongoing Script Issues

Sony’s “Men In Black III” has had its start date pushed back again, after having already a two month delay.

Originally scheduled to begin production this week in New York, Sony and the film’s producers have announced that shooting will now be delayed until March 28 due to ongoing script issues. It’s unsure whether this had anything to do with the rumors of creative disagreements that occurred between Will Smith and filmmakers. Sony has denied truth to any such disagreement, but filming which should have occurred back in October did get pushed back.

Since then, producers announced that production would be split into two phases. Phase one (set in present), would begin in November and wrap before the holidays (which did happen), and phase two (set in the past) would begin shooting around mid-February.

In addition, Jeff Nathanson (Catch Me If You Can) was also hired to polish Ethan Cohen’s (Tropic Thunder) draft. This is troublesome because according to insiders, the lack of a ready script is the core cause of the delay.

Meanwhile, producer Walter Parkes and a Sony spokesperson claimed seasonal concerns and tax incentives, not creative disagreements, were responsible for the break.

“We had to start shooting this year to take advantage of New York State tax incentives, but we also needed to be able to shoot certain exteriors in warmer weather. So back in July we had the idea to keep the start date but build in a hiatus so we could essentially extend the production to late spring.”

Despite all the delays and script concerns, Sony still stands firm on the May 2012 release date. According to a Sony spokesman the May 2012 release date will not be affected because of the delay.

Source: LA Times