Men in Black (1997)
Men in Black was the link movie connecting Hercules and Full Metal Jacket.
Linked through Rip Torn and Vincent D'Onofrio.
Both Rip Torn and Vincent D'Onofrio appeared in Men in Black.
About Men in Black
"Protecting the Earth from the scum of the universe."
After a police chase with an otherworldly being, a New York City cop is recruited as an agent in a top-secret organization established to monitor and police alien activity on Earth: the Men in Black. Agent K and new recruit Agent J find themselves in the middle of a deadly plot by an intergalactic terrorist who has arrived on Earth to assassinate two ambassadors from opposing galaxies.
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
Written by Ed Solomon
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Behind the camera
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Awards
The film won the Academy Award for Best Makeup and was nominated at the 70th Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Original Score; the article notes these among numerous other accolades.
Soundtrack
Score by Danny Elfman
Two soundtracks were released: Danny Elfman's original score and an album of songs featuring Will Smith's title track 'Men in Black'. Elfman's score was praised by critics and earned a nomination for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score at the 70th Academy Awards, losing to The Full Monty.
Movie trivia
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1
Producers Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald optioned Lowell Cunningham's comic in 1992 and hired Ed Solomon to write a very faithful screenplay, launching development that eventually led to Barry Sonnenfeld directing.
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2
Tommy Lee Jones accepted the role of Agent K only after Steven Spielberg promised the script would improve; Jones had called the first draft 'stank', and the studio had considered actors including Clint Eastwood, Tom Selleck, Burt Reynolds and Robert De Niro.
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3
Will Smith was cast as Agent J because Sonnenfeld's wife was a fan of The Fresh Prince and Sonnenfeld liked Smith's Six Degrees performance; the studio and Spielberg preferred Chris O'Donnell, and David Schwimmer also turned down the part, later regretting it in 2024.
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4
A planned chase sequence at Lincoln Center was relocated to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum after the New York Philharmonic decided to charge the filmmakers for using their buildings.
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5
Five months into the shoot the original ending was replaced: Rick Baker's animatronic Bug was swapped for a computer-generated, cockroach-like Bug and the new action sequence cost an additional $4.5 million.
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6
Production designer Bo Welch gave the MIB headquarters a 1960s, airport-like tone influenced by Eero Saarinen; Rick Baker's elaborate prosthetic maquettes were digitized by Industrial Light & Magic to create more mobile digital aliens.
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