{"id":2681,"date":"2011-03-15T01:04:01","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T05:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/?p=2681"},"modified":"2011-03-15T01:04:01","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T05:04:01","slug":"reasons-for-mib-3-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/reasons-for-mib-3-delays\/","title":{"rendered":"Reasons for MIB 3 Delays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/geektyrant.com\/storage\/Men-In-Black.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1299811703925\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There have been reports about the delays and scripting issues surrounding <strong><em>Men In Black III<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0The production is currently on hiatus until March 28 and <strong>David Koepp<\/strong> is hard at work fixing complex script issues. These delays are costing  Sony millions of dollars, but those cost are reportedly more\u00a0than offset  because the studio started shooting early enough in 2010 in order to  save millions for New York tax breaks, according to THR.<\/p>\n<p>The  decision to delay the production has caused fans and Hollywood insiders  to question what Sony is thinking! A top executive at one production  company said that &#8220;the tax break is covering the chaos cost,&#8221; adding,  &#8220;There isn&#8217;t any tax break that would convince me to do [what Sony did]  &#8212; ever!&#8221; Wha<\/p>\n<p>According to Steve Elzer, Sony&#8217;s \u00a0MIB spokesman, the studio decided  to shoot the film to gain the tax break and added the hiatus to allow  outdoor scenes to be shot in New York in spring weather. Oddly enough,  there was no need to worry because the tax breaks were extended for five  years. So in truth the rush into production was redundant.<\/p>\n<p>Many  insiders suspect that Sony rushed into production because all of the key  players &#8212; including Smith, Jones and director\u00a0Barry Sonnenfeld\u00a0&#8212; were  finally ready to go, and did not want to lose out on the cashing in on  the franchise dollars they projected they would earn from the film.<\/p>\n<p>The only reasons Smith and others decided to reunite because of a script written by <strong>Ethan Cohen<\/strong> (<strong><em>Tropic Thunder<\/em><\/strong>).  Sony liked the script, but Sonnenfeld and producer Walter Parkes, Smith  wanted changes. &#8220;He&#8217;s become very enamored with aspects of  screenwriting,&#8221; says a source involved with the production. The source  believes Smith has earned the right to weigh in on the script, but he  says the actor&#8217;s process &#8220;takes a long time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The script has been the key reason for delays. When filming began, Sony brought in screenwriter <strong>Jeff Nathanson<\/strong> (<strong><em>Catch Me If You Can<\/em><\/strong>)  to make revisions. When filming shut down as scheduled around  Christmas, there still was no script acceptable to everyone. When the  hiatus ended in February, the script was still not up to par.<\/p>\n<p>A  former studio chief is not surprised that Sony couldn&#8217;t come craft a  script that Smith was happy with during the break. &#8220;If he wasn&#8217;t  satisfied after it&#8217;s been years in development, how are you going to fix  that at Christmas?&#8221; this person asks. Apparently Smith is under no  pressure to approve a script that is not 100% to his liking, despite the  millions that a delay is costing Sony.<\/p>\n<p>It makes sense they are  having script issues because of the high amount of special effects  involved int the film. A insider says, &#8220;Any movie involving time travel  seems to be difficult if you want to make it work and have no bullshit  loopholes, which has taken longer than we thought it would.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Filming  the first act without a complete script in place has made the issues  even worse. &#8220;It&#8217;s hard because you&#8217;re locked into the beginning of the  movie,&#8221; a production source acknowledges. &#8220;It creates problems that are  just kind of crazy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sony expects to save more than $35 million  from New York tax breaks according to an inside source. That figure will  be reduced because the hiatus has gone on longer than anticipated. Sony  still claims that the extra costs are not substantial. &#8220;Because we  extended the hiatus from the holidays, few people were on the payroll,  so this was a relatively inexpensive decision that has had an  insignificant impact on the budget,&#8221; according to Elzer.<\/p>\n<p>According  to Elzer, Koepp has turned in a revision of the script. The stress of  the dealys and script have begun to cause issues between Sonnenfeld and  Parkes. THR reports that &#8220;Sonnenfeld is known as talented but  high-strung, Parkes &#8212; noted for a handsome head of gray hair &#8212; often  is criticized for heavy-handedness with writers. (Both Parkes and  Sonnenfeld declined comment.)&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>They have had bitter clashes on  both of the earlier MIBs that at one time there were plans to make MIB  III without the active participation of one or the other, according to  an inside source. Before production on MIB III, they made up. \u00a0Now they  are reportedly at odds again, and a source friendly with Sonnenfeld  insists the director is not at fault. &#8220;A lot of the blame gets put on  Barry because he&#8217;s so neurotic and out there,&#8221; this person says. &#8220;But  the real evil here is Walter trying to impose his point of view on  things. And because he&#8217;s so facile and he&#8217;s got great hair, he wins the  day a lot. But what sounds great never materializes into a screenplay.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lawrence Lasker<\/strong>,  once a filmmaking partner with Parkes, has stated that Parkes had &#8220;a  bit of a Salieri syndrome,&#8221; referring to the composer who was famously  jealous of Mozart&#8217;s genius. Screenwriter\u00a0Dale Launer\u00a0(<strong><em>My Cousin Vinny<\/em><\/strong>)  claims Parkes is prone to throwing out many ideas in a process that  &#8220;sort of cuts your balls off a little as a creative person. He gets to  do the fun stuff, and you&#8217;re supposed to make his ideas work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Parkes  has apparently been clashing with screenwriters again. A knowledgeable  source claims that Koepp signed to the latest rewrite with the  understanding that he would not be required to meet with or speak to  Parkes. Elzer stated that the studio and producers who chose to have  Sonnenfeld work directly with Koepp, adding, &#8220;This is fairly common.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There have been reports about the delays and scripting issues surrounding Men In Black III. \u00a0The production is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geeky-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2682,"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681\/revisions\/2682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}