Men in Black: International: New Reports Detail Troubles Behind the Scenes

Men in Black: International premiered to less-than-stellar numbers at the box office this weekend and as fate would have it, news of turbulence on the film's set have since surfaced. In a blazing new report from The Hollywood Reporter, it appears the film nearly lost director F. Gary Gray several times throughout the production due to creative differences between him and producer Walter Parkes, though the studio eventually convinced him to stay.

In fact, the THR report suggests Parkes was at the center of many of the film's most contentious moments, including massive script rewrites as the project was filming which led International's two Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson to bring in their own dialogue writers to help out.

Despite a rocky road during principal photography, it appears the majority of the problems were confined to the production phase and post-production went much more smoothe. Sony ended up testing two cuts of the film, one from each Gray and Parkes, before settling on Parkes' cut as the one it'd end up taking to market.

While exact details on the creative differences between Gray and Parks weren't available, one example provided in the report suggests that the two got into an upheaval about something as small as color correcting. "Walter is both the arsonist and the fireman," one source revealed.

Another source says that film had never gotten into a Dark Phoenix situation, where massive reshoots and retooling were needed after principal photography had wrapped. As it stands now, Men in Black: International has just a 25 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and only ended up grossing $28.5 million its opening weekend, coming in well below industry expectations.

ComicBook.com's Charlie Ridgely wasn't a huge fan of the film, pointing out that film never lived up to it's potential, which ended up resulting in a two out of five-stars rating for the soft reboot.

"Sadly, none of this is enough to lift Men in Black: International from its own mediocrity," Ridgely says in his review, which can be read in full here. "Sony really stuck to the adage "bigger is better," and in the case of the Men in Black franchise, nothing could be further from the truth."

Have you seen the much-anticipated Men in Black sequel? If so, let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Men in Black: International is now in theaters.