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Box Office Roundup: ‘MIB 3′ Wins Weekend Weakly

Damon Houx — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:02:58 +0000

Sorry about the alliteration, but Men in Black 3 was conceived as a a blockbuster. Often when a film is a big huge thing it does near $100 million for its three day (sometimes more). Though MIB 3 may get to a near-$80 Million total by the end of the Memorial day weekend, this isn’t much of a win, which follows everything that’s come out post-Avengers.

	Film	Weekend	Per Screen	Total
1	MIB 3	$55,000,000	$12,947	$55,000,000
2	The Avengers	$36,987,000 (-33.5%)	$9,440	$513,672,000
3	Battleship	$10,800,000 (-57.7%)	$2,917	$44,300,000
4	The Dictator	$9,600,000 (-44.9%)	$3,185	$41,448,000
5	Chernobyl Diaries	$8,000,000	$3,288	$8,000,000
6	Dark Shadows	$7,515,000 (-40.3%)	$2,208	$62,998,000
7	What to Expect When You’re Expecting	$7,150,000 (-32.2%)	$2,367	$22,171,000
8	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	$6,350,000 (+96.6%)	$5,150	$16,553,000
9	The Hunger Games	$2,750,000 (-6.8%)	$1,935	$395,209,000
10	Think Like a Man	$1,400,000 (-47.2%)	$1,781	$88,272,000

The big news this weekend is that The Avengers crossed half a billion domestic, and will – without question – pass The Dark Knight on the all time list, likely at the start of next weekend. The Avengers is still a steamroller, and it should top out at $600, and I’d guess that they cross that round number just barely. But, post-holiday weekend, there’s going to be a sag at the BO, and probably a sense that it’s time to find a new shiny ball. But last I checked, tracking on Snow White was weak, so it may just be that nothing does well next weekend.

And that’s the interesting thing about this summer. If you take The Avengers out of the equation, this summer has been terrible so far. Only one film in the last three weeks has any chance of crossing $100 Million domestic, and that’s Men in Black. But there’s no silver lining to that, as the film is not going to cross $200 Million domestically, and next weekend it should fall at least 50% from this three day, which means it’s likely to do Men in Black 2 numbers, maybe a little less than that film’s $190 domestic. Which is why international is a big deal. You can’t trust the reported budget, so it’s likely the film will have to do $600 worldwide to even turn a profit. Which is possible, and with video, etc. it will likely not lose money, but it’s not Will Smith‘s triumphant return.

Right now the chart’s mostly filled with misfires and disasters. The Dictator, Battleship and Dark Shadows are all going to need international business to break even – though that’s more and more the case these days, and Chernobyl Diaries is going to struggle to do much more than $25 Million with the standard horror business drops.

The Hunger Games is going to cross $400 Million at this point, and it looks like Think Like a Man is sinking too fast to get to $100. Marigold is doing well for what it is, and outside the top ten Moonrise Kingdom did exceptionally strong on four screens. We’ll see if it expands well, at this point The Royal Tennenbaums is Wes Anderson‘s most successful film at $52 Million.

Reality Check: My predictions were close-ish. I went a little high on MIB and Battleship, and a little low on The Avengers, but not too shaby.

$1,781

New ‘Killing Them Softly’ Clip Features Brad Pitt Explaining A Kind And Gentle Way To Murder

Travis Woods — Sat, 26 May 2012 00:35:35 +0000

In Killing Them Softly, three dolts rob a card game protected by the Mob, sending the local underground economy into a tailspin. Enter Brad Pitt, who plays an enforcer sent in to track the thieves down and get back the money. Directed by Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), it’s a movie we’re, well, dying to see in 2012. And to tide us over, there’s a new clip from the film, featuring Pitt’s characters views on how to kill someone, well, softly.

Based on the novel Cogan’s Trade by George Higgins, Killing Them Softly was also scripted by Dominik, who gives Pitt a nice bit of dialogue to chew on here. It’s a darkly funny scene, in which Pitt complains about how emotional and “touchy feely” and “embarrassing” people become right before he murders them. He then goes on to haggle a deal about the affordability of an outside contract killer. Entertaining stuff.

Killing them Softly also stars Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, and Vincent Curatola. The film had its Cannes premiere on May 22, and is set to debut in the United States on September 21, 2012.

Will you be seeing Killing Them Softly?

Source: IGN

News Roundup: Andy Samberg Addresses Harvard Graduates, ‘Katy Perry: Part Of Me’ 3D Poster, And More

Laura Aguirre — Fri, 25 May 2012 21:45:10 +0000

Andy Samberg is used to being in front of an audience, but nothing could have prepared him for this. This week, Samberg gave a speech at Harvard’s graduation ceremony to a very tough crowd, and we’ve got the video for you below. We also have the new poster for the Katy Perry: Part Of Me In 3D documentary, news that FX is developing a new show involving the incredibly talented Tim Roth, and much more after the jump.

Batman Is Insane: Unreality Magazine has made a case stating that Batman is as ‘crazy town banana pants’ as The Joker. The writer argues that Batman is “as fragile and mentally unstable as the Joker.” Check that out!
Movie Bars: If only this were actually possible [sigh]. Unreality Magazine posted an article listing six movie bars that’d be cool to go to in real life. Their list includes The Coco Bongo Club from The Mask, The Winchester from Shaun of the Dead, and The Gold Room (no, not the one in Echo Park, though they do have free tacos so…) from The Shining. Check it out.
Tim Roth TV Show: Tim Roth’s Lie To Me was a show taken before its time. But, alas, Roth is returning to television with another series. FX is developing a “bank robbery family drama” with Roth as the lead. Deadline reports that the project is described as “a drama about addiction, bank robbery, and an extreme volatile family dynamic.” The show is still in development.

Poster:

Katy Perry 3D: Check out the new poster for Katy Perry: Part Of Me. Try not to laugh.

Videos:

Relax, dude!: Lastly, watch Andy Samberg give a very hilarious speech at this year’s Harvard Graduation. It’s a 20 minute video, but worth your time. He makes impressions of Mark Zuckerberg and Mark Wahlberg and even yells, “Yale Sucks Balls.” Do check it out.

That’s the end of our round-up. Keep checking back at ScreenCrave for more entertainment news and features.

What are you excited for?

‘Star Wars’ Turns 35

Damon Houx — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:08:03 +0000

To badly misquote The Beatles, it was 35 years ago today that George Lucas taught the world to play. Yes, Star Wars came out on May 25, 1977, and now we’ve been living in its shadow for three and a half decades. Though too often anniversaries are mentioned as milestones, it’s worth reflecting on what has changed since the release.

As we are now in the midst of a record-breaking summer – thanks to The Avengers – it’s impossible to look at that or the current cinematic landscape and not trace it back to Lucas and his little Flash Gordon homage. Though the story was ripped off (mostly in low budget efforts), it was the launch of Industrial Light and Magic that had more impact than the film’s use of Joseph Cambell’s Hero’s Journey as the backbone of its narrative. If you don’t believe me, watch something like Logan’s Run or even the Planet of the Apes films. Pre-Star Wars, science fiction often focused its creative energy on set design and costuming over the miniature work and stop motion that changed the face of cinema.

And it was there from those classic opening images – it was unlike anything seen before, it took Stanley Kubrick’s work from 2001: A Space Odyssey and made it propulsive. Alas, computer technology has shown us that destroying worlds can be done with a click of a button, but the idea that cinema could do anything was still ripe then, and there’s no understating the impact the film had on imaginations (including mine, I think anyone who loves the films can talk about moments of childhood bliss watching or playing make-believe in the universe).

And – let’s not forget – Star Wars wasn’t a geek or nerd thing. It was a cultural phenomenon. It’s hard to imagine a film having the same lasting impact on pop culture that the first film – and the original trilogy – had. When The Avengers is on Blu-ray and DVD in a couple months it will be seen as the big thing of the summer of 2012, but it’s unlikely that people will still feel its grasp in 2047.

Of course, Star Wars isn’t just a movie, and there’s the cultural baggage that comes with its follow ups and prequels, its fans and its multiple altered versions, things that have reduced it into a geek thing. And the film – as it originally existed – is no longer available for screenings, and the only way to watch the original cut is through a non-anamorphic DVD or through laserdisc or VHS technology. But from that opening sequence of a big ship shooting and capturing a little ship, cinema was irrevocably changed (for better and for worse), and the dreams of a farm boy in space with a greater destiny still has the power to capture imaginations. If you can dump the baggage and find the original cut, it’s still a hell of a ride.

Are you going to watch Star Wars this weekend?

Reviewing Roger Ebert’s ‘Greatest Films’: Written in the Wind (1956)

Jaime Lopez — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:00:03 +0000

Years ago, ScreenCrave contributor Jaime Lopez privately began tackling Roger Ebert’s “Greatest Films” list, an ever-expanding monolith of celluloid currently comprised of 354 films. With 261 under his belt and less than 100 films left to go, Lopez has set himself to put these remaining films’ “Greatness” to the test–reviewing both the movies themselves and Ebert’s response. This week, he takes on Douglas Sirk’s Written in the Wind.

The Players

Director: Douglas Sirk
Writer: George Zuckerman, Robert Wilder
Cast: Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone

Notes:

Prior to watching this film, I had never given much thought to where soap operas came from. Roger Ebert calls Written on the Wind “a perverse and wickedly funny melodrama in which you can find the seeds of Dallas, Dynasty, and all the other prime-time soaps”. I wouldn’t call this film “wickedly funny”, and the comedy struck me as unintentional or so satirical that you have to be aware enough to be in on the joke. Much of the dialogue in the first act didn’t really engage me. I found myself reaching for deeper meaning until I realized “hey, this is a Technicolor soap opera!”. And that’s where I got the film, but mostly by taking it lightly.

I couldn’t help but compare this to the Mexican soap operas I watched as a kid during the 80’s and 90’s. Written on the Wind takes itself more seriously….. or does it? According to Ebert, director Douglas Sirk can be given credit for establishing the tone in soap operas, “in which shocking behavior is treated with passionate solemnity, while parody burbles beneath”. Either I watched too many damn soap operas growing up or I’m too much of a hopeless romantic to have noticed any parody “burbling” beneath. Once I settled into the story and knew a bit about each character, I ate up all the drama and unfolding plot points.

The film follows Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack), who is the son of an oil millionaire and – without a sense of purpose in life – marries Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall). But she has always been secretly loved by his best friend Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), who is also a geologist for his father’s company. Kyle’s sister, Marylee Hadley (Dorothy Malone), has always had a crush on Mitch. The stage is set for a web of sex that – though not intricate enough to be called “tangled” – provides some nice surprises along the way. Conflict is triggered when Kyle learns that he is unable to have children, a discovery that takes him back to the bottle, and that’s exacerbated when Marylee tells Kyle that Lucy is pregnant.

The best performances here are by Dorothy Malone and Robert Stack as the Hadley siblings. They’re both unstable and spoiled individuals. Malone is recognizable as the type of manipulative lust-hungry family member, an archetype that we’ve grown to expect in soap operas. Previously known for playing nice girls, Malone won an Oscar for her against-type work here. Robert Stack has a scary and unsettling intensity, which is probably a major reason why his character is drawn to Lucy’s calming presence. His eyes often seem like they’re deviously thinking about something else. Stack lost the Oscar to Anthony Quinn (whose winning performance in Lust for Life was less than ten minutes long), allegedly for political reasons involving his studio contract. It is Stack and Malone that drive the action.

Lauren Bacall and Rock Hudson are mostly straight-laced here. Bacall was married to Humphrey Bogart at the time of this film and took this role at a time when her career had lost much of its steam. Bacall and Rock Hudson are not bad here, but their characters are given a limited range of emotions and rendered mostly as self-composed individuals.

Brief Words for Mr. Ebert: I like this movie, although I was ready to turn it off during the first act. But about 30 minutes into it, when I stopped taking it seriously, my enjoyment multiplied. And the fun levels went through the roof when Lucy makes the film’s biggest revelation to Kyle, and we can see that all hell is about to break loose by looking at Kyle’s eyes as he says, “You shouldn’t have done that”. Mr. Ebert, as sometimes happens in film history, some films are overlooked and dismissed as simplistic during their time, only to then be re-assessed and declared to have greater value because some critic decides that the joke was on us the whole time. My hesitation in calling this film “great” stems from my own curiosity, mainly wanting to know whether director Douglas Sirk did intend this as satirical humor and as a subversive take on American families. Why didn’t critics know that before they began praising it years later? And, it seems, why wouldn’t a director disclose his intentions from the start if that is in fact what he intended. On the surface, this is similar to a soap opera, but under the surface, it is suggested by critics that much of its power lies in its subversiveness. When recently watching Contagion, I appreciated the last minute of the film when we learn how and where the pandemic began. If only it were possible to know who, and at what precise moment, someone first declared Written in the Wind to be satirical, leading to the now widespread belief of it being so.

Good, Bad or Great Movie: GOOD

Do you like Written in the Wind? Do you consider this film to be Good, Bad or Great?

Next week’s review: Victim

‘Maniac’ Red-Band Trailer Finds Elijah Wood Scalping Women And Loving Mannequins

Travis Woods — Fri, 25 May 2012 17:26:32 +0000

Fair warning: if you’re at work, perhaps it’s best to save this trailer until your boss is at lunch. And you may not want to be eating lunch yourself when you watch it. The trailer for Maniac finds Elijah Wood starring in a remake of the classic 1980 slasher film of the same name, starring Joe Spinell (you know, the guy contractually obligated to be in every New Hollywood film ever) and directed by B-movie king William Lustig. And the trailer for the remake, well, let’s say it leaves little to the imagination.

The Maniac revamp features Woods as a—you guessed it—maniac with some serious mommy issues and proclivity for scalping the everloving hell out of women, in order to feed his scalp fetish (yes, his scalp fetish). Things get complicated when the murderous mannequin store owner meets a woman name Anne and grows close to her, driving his need to murder and scalp to even more maniacal heights.

So it’s not your typical horror movie fare, Maniac was directed by Franck Khalfoun (P2, Wrong Turn at Tahoe) and written by Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur & C.A. Rosenberg. The film does not yet have a release date, but we’ll keep you updated as news develops. Check out the trailer below.

What do you think of the trailer?

Source: /Film

‘Thor 2′ Villain Will Be Played By Mads Mikkelsen Of ‘Casino Royale’

Bronwen Winter Phoenix — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:34:24 +0000

Marvel Studios are on a roll, having already cast not one, but three different villains for Iron Man 3 – and now they’ve announced Casino Royale baddie Mads Mikkelsen will be playing an as-yet unknown villain in Thor 2. However, fans will be happy to know Tom Hiddleston will also be back as Loki, and is said to still have a big part as the sequel’s antagonist – and there willll be plenty of tension to look forward to back at Asgard.

Mikkelsen starred as the blood-crying villain Le Chiffre alongside Daniel Craig as James Bond in the film Casino Royale, and his solid acting skills should make him a challenging adversary to the mighty Thor. Fans will also be excited to hear that Idris Elba has already confirmed that he will return as Asgard’s gatekeeper Heimdall – maybe he’ll get more involved with the action in the sequel?

As of yet, it’s not been announced which villain Mikkelsen will be playing, but fans could already be guessing at some of the possible clues… such as Mikkelsen’s Danish background, or the fact that Loki is still involved.

It seems 2013/14 is shaping up well for Marvel Studios, after struggling to keep up with their plan of two theatrical releases per year. Delays with Thor and The Avengers saw Iron Man 2 released by itself in 2010, and this year The Avengers is without a partner since Runaways was indefinitely postponed. Now it seems they’re back to two films in a year, or perhaps even more

Thor 2 is set to star Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Mads Mikkelsen, Josh Dallas and Anthony Hopkins. Production starts this summer with a November 15th, 2013 release planned.

Are you already excited about Thor 2?

Source: FirstShowing

Six New ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Banners Highlight Batman Versus Bane, Shoddy Photoshop

Travis Woods — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:38:07 +0000

Despite being one of the most anticipated action films of, well, ever, The Dark Knight Rises’ print ad campaign seems to be taking a decidedly laid back route, in terms of quality. First, we had the Wal-Mart quality photoshopped horror of the final theatrical poster, now we have six new banners that look like they were pieced together in about 10 minutes each. One would think that, with a budget of around $250 million, Christopher Nolan and Co. could have spent a little more time working out the kinks. Check out the new banners below.

Ok, I should try to say something nice: the banners, um, well, they sure make me look forward to an epic confrontation between Batman and Bane, so… that’s something.

Elsewhere, you’ve got Batman leading what looks like a SWAT team against Bane’s army of what appears to be The League of Shadows from Batman Begins, so there’s something that we internet speculators can froth about for the next two months. Oh, and Catwoman’s blowing some things up while riding around on a Bat-Pod, which would be neat if it weren’t airbrushed and photoshopped into oblivion.

But hey, we’re still counting down the days until we can point our greedy eyes at The Dark Knight Rises—we just wish the marketing campaign lived up to our expectations of what this final Batman film in the Nolan trilogy deserves.

What do you think of the banners?

Source: Batman News

‘The Exorcist’ is Being Remade… For TV

Damon Houx — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:24:42 +0000

When you factor for inflation, The Exorcist is one of the top ten grossing films of all time. Which may explain why there’s been so many sequels, reissues and rip-offs. Indeed, Paranormal Activity and its sequels should be paying royalty fees to William Friedkin‘s hit film. So how do you remake it without being obnoxious? Move it to television.

Vulture got the scoop, and the great news is that Sean Durkin, the director of Martha Marcy May Marlene, is attached to write and direct the ten-part TV version of the story. He’s backed by Morgan Creek and Roy Lee. They don’t have a channel yet, which could change the tone of the piece. You get it on HBO or Showtime, and it can have all the gross outs and gags of the original. If it ends up on Syfy, they’ll likely be a DVD/Blu-ray release of the unrated version.

Durkin has proved himself to massively talented, and though a ten-part adaptation may go for higher fidelity to the book than the movie – which is such an artistically uninteresting proposition – we’d bet that he will make it his own. If he can bring half of the creepiness that he brought to MMMM, this will be a must see.

Are you fan of the original Exorcist?

Fox Searchlight Acquires Homework and Martha Marcy May Marlene (0)

Box Office Predictions: Will ‘MIB3′ Dethrone ‘The Avengers’?

Damon Houx — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:05:22 +0000

The Avengers has so dominated the box office – and we’re looking at a holiday weekend – that it’s possible that Men in Black III might not put The Avengers into second place. It’s also inevitable by weekend’s end that Avengers will be over half a billion domestic. That said, it’s also possible that MIB3 could do a hundred over the four-day weekend. There are variables at play.

With Men in Black, the question is: What is success? With all of its players, and a supposedly very expensive production, we could see the film do a half a billion worldwide and still not make money. When you’re talking about big studio tentpole releases the scales and measurements are different. Currently the film has no listed budget, but we’ve heard rumors that $300 Million or more is possible (even likely) because of its long shooting schedule and multiple re-shoots.

The film could open to $100 Million over the four day, and get over $200 domestic (maybe even $300 Million) and normally that would be a big hit. But the math says that the film will have to do over $600 Million worldwide to break even if it cost as much as it was rumored to. That’s a lot of money for a film that’s mostly a trifle.

And though we may see a near-$80 Million opening, does that even mean people care or wanted this film? Or is it just the new event movie? MIB is an odd franchise that lost a lot of goodwill with its second entry, and even if the film opens big, it may not be because of the name or the star. And if it opens to weak domestic numbers, expect Sony to pimp its international business.

Chernobyl Diaries is also opening. Yeah, no one’s going to even remember this film existed in two years.

So, numbers, what do they look like (for the three day)?

MIB3 – $58.3 Million
The Avengers - $32.8 Million
Battleship – $12 Million
Chernobyl Diaries – $9 Million
The Dictator – $8.5 Million

The big surprise would be a surge from the men in black. Which is possible, but unlikely.

What are you going to see this weekend?

‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2′ New Character Posters Bring The Bland

Travis Woods — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:37:43 +0000

Not to have its thunder stolen by The Avengers’ runaway box office, Prometheus’ mysterious buzz, The Amazing Spider-Man’s inevitable Fourth of July weekend dominion, or The Dark Knight Rises’ guaranteed success (or crappy posters), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 has dropped a series of bland character posters on the world today. Featuring a trio of the blank stares we’ve all come to know and moderately tolerate, the posters are below.

Hey, we’ll give them this—at least they’re better than the “Let’s write the words ‘Twilight’ and ‘Breaking Dawn’ over a smudge and then release it” thinking that went into the original teaser poster for the upcoming film, right?

Pay close attention and you’ll note that—gasp!—Kristen Stewart’s eyes are red, which means she totes a vampire now, you guyz. Totes! OMG, it’s juuuuuuust like the books. Which, in keeping with the last book, this film will revolve around some kind of vampire army and then a 20 year old muscle-bound werewolf falls in love with a newborn vampire baby and then Stewart will look at things blankly with her mouth slightly agape and set the feminist movement back about 50 years. Something like that.

Stewart costarts with Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner in Twilight: Seriously—How Many More Punctuation Marks Can We Awkwardly Wedge Into This Title?, which is set for a November 16, 2012 release.

What do you think of the posters?

Source: Coming Soon

Interview: Will Smith Talks ‘MIB III,’ Coming Back To The Screen, And Future Projects

Laura Aguirre — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:14:48 +0000

Will Smith might just be the biggest movie star there is. His TV show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, made him a household name, and before his three-year hiatus he made a decade’s worth of blockbusters. Now, he’s back as Agent J in Men In Black 3. We recently got the chance to talk to Mr. Smith. He told us what he learned during his time away, why he chose to revisit the MIB franchise, and shared details about some of his future projects.

Check out our interview with Will Smith…

Your act got to be a little more serious this time around. How was that?

Did you see my acting transition? Look, I think that the surprise at the end of the movie was the thing that got everybody excited to want to make this movie. It was a little bit beyond just getting together and having some fun. It was an interesting way to tie up the series and get you all the way back to the beginning. I like that people are surprised. No one really sees that coming. Well, some people see it coming, those amongst us that are so far ahead, but it was beautiful to come back together after so many years. And even the new guy, Josh Brolin, was able to deliver on the same energy that people are used to experiencing in these movies.

Describe your chemistry with Tommy Lee Jones and how you translated it to get that same effect with Josh Brolin?

That’s what was crazy because that was all Josh Brolin. As actors, when you’re in a scene, it’s like a tennis match. You’re going back and forth. Me and Josh have very different chemistry than me and Tommy Lee Jones. And what you do as an actor is you try to find the lanes and develop the chemistry. So I was expecting to make an adjustment from Tommy Lee Jones to Josh Brolin, but Josh studied Tommy so thoroughly that it was almost identical, like just the way that the interactions were. It was absolutely stunning and it’s crazy because you don’t even notice how good his acting is because it’s so good. It feels like you’re watching Tommy Lee Jones. You don’t know that’s Josh Brolin. People thought that Tommy did the voice for the Josh Brolin character. That’s how thoroughly Josh delivered it.

Were you surprised that the story was slightly more serious this time?

Look, we’re all ten years older from the second movie and different things are important to us in our lives. We’re growing and you want to have the same kind of dumb, the same kind of silly that the first two movies had. There’s an appreciation of the silly that the comedy delivers, but it was really important for us to also have some meat to chew on and create something. Toy Story 3 did a really great job of advancing it, but also creating the underlying depth. So if you’re going into the third part of something, it was really important to deliver emotionally.

Why did you want to revisit this franchise?

The idea of a secret government organization that polices alien activity on and off planet Earth, is so unique. You don’t say that this movie is just like Men In Black. There’s nothing that’s just like Men In Black. You can look at other movies and compare them to things, but Men In Black is a very distinct, very unique thing. It’s difficult to have a fantasy comedy that works on that level. They tend to feel not smart or there is something in the DNA when it’s those two things that sort of dissipates. So for me, I was excited about the degree of difficulty. Also, I haven’t worked in three years, so I wanted to put on some shoes that I knew fit. [Laughs]

You’ve been producing though. Is it a totally different creative exercise when you produce a film that you’re not in?

I’ve been producing with the kids and with [wife] Jada [Pinkett-Smith]. I think it’s where I’m most natural, at my most natural lane. I think that the wide view of seeing everything that’s going on, and helping, and pulling people in comes very natural to me. But when you stay away from acting for a while, it’s like a muscle. You get out there and you look stupid, so it’s like you got to warm up a little bit and I’ve been away from it. The time was well-spent. There is a little bit of a blend.

I learned a lot of valuable lessons on The Karate Kid. Working on a remake is interesting in that you start with hindsight, right, so that was an interesting thing. You can spell out and see the patterns of why people cheer in a movie theater much more clearly and you get to experiment with your idea. So for me, that was very informative. And just coming back to Men In Black 3 felt like home.

Can you talk about coming back? What’s changed in the last few years?

Well, it’s a thing that I’ve been paying attention to for a lot of years. I was in Australia in 1990 with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis and they were opening Planet Hollywood. So I was out there while I was just in my first year of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. I’m down there, I’m like, ‘Yo, this is crazy.’ So they’re sitting around and I go in there and I’m sitting there with those guys and Arnold sits there and he says to me, ‘Young man, I want you to know, you cannot be a movie star only in the United States. You’re only a movie star if they know you around the world.’ Right? And then, Bruce talked about it for a little and I was like, ‘All right.’

So they put that idea into my mind very clearly and then, from that point, that’s when I started making it a point to open new markets. We went into Russia with I, Robot, we went into Brazil, and the idea is that you create that around the world and that’s when you hold a movie star. There used to be a time where you could just have hit movies in the United States, but that’s not the case anymore. And as you can see, the world of cinema is opening up even more, so to me, it’s just about taking those laps around the world to maintain that.

Is it surreal that some of the younger generations are recognizing your early work?

You know what’s crazy for me is that The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air is the biggest thing I’ve ever done. Like when I go around, I’m the Fresh Prince everywhere in the world. People scream, ‘El Principe!’ It’s just amazing how that television show, and it was really sort of a stroke of luck, it’s because of the amount of outlets for the show that a nine-year old kid thinks it’s new. A nine year-old kid in Moscow watching the Fresh Prince thinks it’s brand new, so when I show up, it’s as if it’s brand new. So The Fresh Prince has been a huge gift for me in that sense.

Do your kids ever give you grief for some of your earlier work?

Jaden can’t figure out how people thought it was OK for me to wear the clothes I was wearing on Fresh Prince. That’s his thing. He was like, ‘Dude, that shouldn’t even be on TV.’ Willow gets it and understands. But with the kids in the house, it’s really great for me because they help me stay aware. They help me stay current, and follow trends and things like that. Even the idea of something as simple as Instagram is an entirely new outlet. It’s like the fans are consuming entertainment differently and if you miss on that, you turn into a dinosaur really quickly.

What, personally, did you learn from your time off?

It was just that, I was a child of Dallas, so I’ve dreamed about this life my entire life, right? So on Dallas, they had South Fork, the property had a name. And Sue Ellen would come to breakfast and J.R. was there and it was like the whole family and everybody worked the family business. That was my vision of my family. But I’m actually surprised that other people got their own vision. Like Willow made a huge hit record, “Whip My Hair”, then she cut her hair off. It’s like, ‘Hey! What are you doing?’ So it was like, for me, the last three years of seeing just how much everybody has their own opinion and everybody has their own ideas and everybody has their own lives that may or may not fit in my Sue Ellen vision.

What’s your favorite gadget from Men In Black III?

It has to be the time dial. Somebody needs to come up with a Time Jump app. That idea, I’ve always loved time travel. And I started, because of this movie, to actually dive into it and thinking about it and talking about it. I realized, for black people, you don’t want to do too much jumping into the past. Right now is the best it’s ever been. It was like, yeah, maybe the time dial, if can go forward with it, that would be a great thing. [Laughs]

This is your first 3D movie. How was your experience with this new technology and what did you think of the final product?

Well, my first concern with being in 3D was my ears, because I could see these things pretty much taking over the whole of the screen. But when I first saw and they were cool and it was like “Alright.” They didn’t have me looking like satellite dishes. But then, with special effects now you can see anything. There’s no limitations with special effects. In the last five or six years, there’s no limitation of what you can see on screen anymore.

It’s funny, because the same thing happened with the music business. When the music business went to digital, when you can do anything, when you can record anything, a number of tracks, as soon as it exploded, it has a weird opposite effect where it gets worse for a while, which is really strange. It’s like as soon as you get all the tools to do anything, all of a sudden, now the movies aren’t as good, and it’s like “how the hell does that happen?”

So I think we’re about to turn that corner with the 3D specifically and Men In Black. I think what [director] Barry [Sonnenfeld] did was he found the balance of not throwing things at the audience. The 3D is the screen and back, which he went for depth, which makes it more pleasing to the eye. He decided to go with the conversion. We tried to work with the actual 3D cameras, but he went with the conversion and I think it just gives you a greater opportunity to dial it in and make it more pleasurable.

How was it filming in New York?

Anytime you shoot in New York, it’s always hectic because New York actually becomes a character in the movie. But that’s an important part of the Men In Black series. We were back there, I think we shot four months in New York and then the rest was on the streets and some of the stuff was on stage.

Can you tell us anything about Uptown Saturday Night?

Uptown. Well, me and Denzel [Washington], we’re working on it, trying to get it together. That would be a great thing, considering the material has to be right to deserve all that manpower. We would try to figure it out as we got into it and see who’s more comfortable doing what. Because when I first asked Denzel, he was like, ‘I’m not funny, man.’ And I’m saying like, ‘That was funny, that you said that.’ So he was a little concerned about the comedy and I’m like, ‘Man, come on. It’s going to be fantastic.’

If you could go back in time and change the success of anything, what would it be?

The thing that I have learned in my extensive study of time travel is that if you change one thing, you change everything. So I am absolutely ecstatic about where my life is right now. I wouldn’t mess with anything. Everything I’ve experienced, everything that’s gone right or wrong in my mind has turned out to be alright. So I feel like that’s the nature of energy. I get to decide whether it’s right or wrong or good or bad. My life, as I sit here today, is absolutely perfect, so I’m messing with nothing.

Is another Bad Boys a possibility?

I love making those movies. It’s Miami, it’s the tight T-shirt, and fast cars and it’s just at this point in my career though, the material has to be right. Just because it’s a popcorn movie doesn’t mean it doesn’t have something to say. And that to me, that’s hugely important. I’m 43 and I’m probably looking at seven more years where I can run and jump a little bit and then I’m going butt and gut for the rest of my career.

Do you think you’ll do SNL anytime soon? What do you think of Jay Pharoah’s impression of you?

I met him a few months ago. He’s got Denzel down. He doesn’t exactly have me perfect. I should spend some time with him so he can get me just perfect. I’ve never done SNL, we have to figure that out. The timing’s never been perfect for that. I’ll go on there and I hear everybody say it’s great and it’s a tough week that’s fantastic. But I’ve never done it. Maybe, we’ll see, next flick.

Do you ever think that there’s a generation of kids who know you best as Willow and Jaden’s dad?

In Philly, the kids were like, ‘Mr. Willow! Mr. Willow!’ [Laughs]

Do you think it’s important to attract a younger generation?

It was very important for me, having been away that long to come back in a way that was comfortable for me, and to come back with a project that was kid-friendly. And that was something that Eddie Murphy had said to me a few years ago. He said, ‘Man, if you’re lucky enough to be in this business, every 20 years, you got to go back and get the kids. Go get the kids every 20 years.” With Dr. Dolittle and The Klumps and everything and the idea of maturing and then you go back and drop something.

And what’s great for me is that target audience is in my house, so I get the scene-by-scene, screenplay-by-screenplay, run it by the judges. Jaden is probably the one of my kids who looks at me like I’m meat, like, ‘I’m coming for you. You just have no idea. He’s looking across the dinner table at me. Jaden is extremely competitive. I tell him all the time, ‘You know what, son, listen, I’m going to teach you everything I know and you’re going to work hard and you’ll be the second biggest movie star in the world.’ [Laughs]

Men In Black III opens Friday, May 25th.

ScreenCrave.com

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