Another Oscar-nominated actor will play Tommy Lee Jones’s younger self in the sequel.
After nearly a decade away from movie screens, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are suiting up again to become “Men in Black.” After the first two films made over $1 billion worldwide, it was just a matter of time before they put on their shades and fought aliens again. But if the photo to the left is looks a little off to you, don’t worry. It’s not a facelift that’s making Jones look decades younger; it’s another actor.
Photographers caught Will Smith and new costar Josh Brolin filming scenes for “Men in Black III” this week in the Bronx. According to The Hollywood Reporter, in the third movie Smith’s character, Agent J, goes back in time to 1969 and encounters the younger version of Jones’s Agent K, played by Brolin. From the looks of the pictures, it seems that Brolin has stepped into Jones’s patent leather shoes just fine.
In many ways, Josh Brolin was a natural choice to step in as the earlier incarnation of Tommy Lee Jones. There is a marked resemblance between the two, especially with their matching black suits and slicked-back hair. They both have roots in Texas: Jones was born there, and Brolin’s mother was a native. Both own ranches where they live when they’re not working. They have also worked on the same film twice before — “In the Valley of Elah” and the Oscar-winning “No Country for Old Men” — but they never appeared in the same scene. And since they’re playing the same role in two different times, it stands to reason they won’t in “Men in Black III,” either.
However, Brolin is significantly older now than Jones actually was in 1969. Brolin is currently 43 years old, and Jones was 23 at that time. But since Brolin still looks young for his age — and Jones has always looked old for his — it basically evens out.
“Men in Black III” has been the subject of some controversy because, according to The Hollywood Reporter, cameras started rolling on the film without a finished script. In order to qualify for New York tax credits that were set to expire, the movie began shooting last November. The plan was for filming to go on hiatus from December through February, but that break was extended through March to finish the screenplay. But as the photographs show, the cast and crew are now back at work.
With a cast that also includes Emma Thompson and Jemaine Clement, “Men in Black III” is scheduled to open on May 25, 2012.
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