Men in Black 4 Being Developed at Sony

Sony announced today that Oren Uziel had been hired to write a draft of Men in Black 4, which he will take on following completion of 21 Jumpstreet 2. The news comes from The Hollywood Reporter, who say that it's unclear to what extent any of the key players are involved, and that there is definitely no contract already in place for Emma Thompson or Josh Brolin. Will Smith, Barry Sonnenfeld and Steven Spielberg all have generous contracts that are something of a liability to the franchise, and of course all have schedules that make each sequel a scheduling nightmare. Sonnenfeld was recently rumored to be developing a Metal Men movie for Warner Bros. Despite middling reviews and an anemic North American box office, the international audience supported Men in Black 3, ultimately making it the highest-grossing installment of the series. At the time of the film's release, though, things looked bleak for the franchise and in a discussion with IMDb Managing Editor Keith Simanton, we discussed the possibilities for the film, with Simanton speculating at the time that nobody would be rushing to make a fourth film. "I think that's the story more than anything else. Is there an MIB 4? Is there an MIB spinoff? That's what they'd have to do: they'd have to do a reboot, which is entirely possible but that's just my conjecture," Simanton told us at the time.