The biggest question right now is whether or not Will Smith will reprise his role. Emmerich has never been one to make sequels to his own films, but Will Smith has been the one holding up development of these films, according to Vulture’s source. We all know what occured with Men In Black 3D recently, and Smith is the one getting the biggest paycheck out of that film. Smith is demanding to have another pay increase for these films, but Fox is willing to move forward with or without Smith.

However, if a deal can’t be made with Smith, or another A-list actor, then Levy will likely drop the project. Levy has already been looking at other projects such as Frankenstein for Twentieth Century Fox and Maleficent for Disney. Fox declined to comment on the issue, but seem to be hopeful that Levy will star on the project.

Now Twitchfilm has learned that Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing) is attached, with Will Smith still to star, based on I Am Legend‘s screenwriter Mark Protosevich’s script.

The original 2008 Korean film featured a man who has been imprisoned in a hotel room for 15 years, is let loose with a cell phone and three days to figure out why he’s been imprisoned. Does the controversial Lee have what it takes? Remember this is a rumor.

Source: Deadline

The first bit of casting seems to have placed Inglourious Basterds’ Christoph Waltz as Dr. King Schultz, and apparently QT is aiming for the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Will Smith, according to Variety.

Good. Personally to me, Smith is slumming in crap like MIB 3 for next year. Can you imagine Parents Just Don’t Understand rewritten by QT? Soon…

Will Smith is golden at the box office, especially with genre films. But with his much-troubled MIB III and his new team-up with the critics’ whipping boy, M. Night, do you care about this project?

Source: Deadline

The plot see Agent J (Will Smith) traveling back in time to save Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones in present day, Josh Brolin in the past) from Yaz (Jermaine Clement). The scenes being shot this week will feature those set during the present day, and will pick back up with the scenes set in the past in February. Featuring time-travel in a film’s plot tends to create plot holes, and is rather tricky to get right. The delay isn’t likely to affect the film’s scheduled release in May of 2012.

Director Roland Emmerich has been talking for awhile now about his plan to make not one, but two sequels to his 1996 mega-hit alien invasion movie Independence Day. The two sequels are tentively ID4-ever Part 1 & 2 and will take place a few years after the first film ends. Alien technology has changed everything and Will Smith is the President, leading America like a king.

Pullman chatted with MTV about the Independence Day sequels and expressed skepticism that the movies would actually ever shift into production. “It would be a challenge, just creatively with the studio, how much money it would take to make it, whether Will would come and do it and what the story would be,” Pullman said.

The films are still years away from going into production.

Source: MTV

The villain that Clement will portray will be a “nightmare biker who looks like Dennis Hopper and Satan”, named Yaz. The character isn’t meant to be funny, and is described as “oozing badassery and violence”.Brolin will portray a twenty-six year old Agent K, but will probably use CG to make him look  younger. The film will include time travel, but the Joblo writer states “there’s no real need for it to make perfect sense since the tone of the series is so goofy.”

Jimi Hendrix, Castro, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Andy Warhol will be revealed as aliens. The film will also involve the use of an iPhone as a means of time-travel.  Etan Cohen wrote the script, with David Koepp re-writing. Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald will serve as producers, with Steven Spielberg as executive producer. The film will see Barry Sonnenfeld return as director, and will be presented in 3-D. Shooting is tentatively set for this fall.

Men In Black 3-D will open on May 25, 2012.

Below is a short teaser Will Smith shot for Sony’s 3D TV launch recently in Culver City. Smith promises the 3D “will look good”.

Source: Coming Soon

The Film:

It was fifteen years ago, that we witnessed the Birth of Bay, the self-proclaimed director of “awesome”, yet he was all but an unknown to us then. A handful of films later, the Redbull-crazed detonations expert Michael Bay is instantly recognizable for the things he does and doesn’t do in his films. Yet seeing Bad Boys now in hindsight, is a lot of fun for catching all of the “Bay-isms” we all have come to love and hate. Along with The Rock, Bad Boys is clearly his most streamlined effort still, showcasing the at-the-time TV stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence over pure action and explosions. Well, barely.

I guess “Bayhards” (a term I’m coining now for Michael Bay supporters) might feel as if Bad Boys (1995) is quaint, when compared to the seemingly endless display of explosions in his later films like Armageddon, Transformers, and even Bad Boys II, but for the rest of us, the pairing of Smith and Lawrence is stuff of great chemistry, and why this film is a lot of fun. Reading old reviews from 1995 for Bad Boys echoes a lot of issues people have with Bay’s films now, but calling it an bad film because it’s formulaic is off-key here. In fact, that’s what makes the film so much fun is the traditional buddy-cop elements we get and how Will Smith and Martin Lawrence run with them. Yes, it’s like Lethal Weapon or Beverly Hills Cop but so? It never set out then to reinvent the buddy-cop genre, a long played out genre at that, but it did reinvigorate it.

Bad Boys is solely Smith’s and Lawrence’s film, even though Bay’s massive explosion-filled finale is a virtual tell-all to us as if he’s saying “wait till next time“. Bay seemingly had a disinterest in much of the dialogue in the film and encouraged them to go in directions they wanted too via improvisations. Yes, I’m fully aware of how that sentence sounds in a Michael Bay film review, but hey, it works in Bad Boys. Both at that time (and Smith still) were talented actors on TV with their respective shows and their banter is why Bad Boys is a film we watch and watch again. Like I said before, it’s far more coherent than his later films, another good reason why we come back for the “awesome”. Yeah, I said it, whatcha gonna do?

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Sony offers us a solid HD presentation of Bay’s first film. In 15 years, audio mixes have changed, so it’s forgivable if this DTS track, that sounds really good, also sounds dated. It all lacks that powerful snap and clarity we’ve grown accustomed too, but don’t let that sway you. It still sounds really good like I’ve said, but a tad flat.

The video is pretty good too, although it lacks that slick sheen we like from our HD movies. Details are high, colors are great, black thick, all with minor film grain. Not a perfect transfer, but a good catalog release nonetheless. Worth upgrading from that DVD you have.

The extras are ported over from the previous DVD release.

Commentary: Bay flies solo here for an entertaining chat on the production. He goes a mile-a-minute yet it’s not fluff. Fans should dig his talk on the actors, explosions, and other tidbits.

Putting the Boom & Bang in the Bad Boys: Called a documentary on the back cover, but it’s more of a fine, semi-EPK look at the weapons in the film. The FX team gets some love here, and face it: without these dudes, who would Michael Bay be?

Three Music Videos, Trailers, and Sony’s MovieIQ finish out the extras.

Conclusion: The first Bay film is better, in terms of story and acting, than his newer ones, but fans will appreciate the HD disc for a fun explosion-filled watch.

The Film: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Flight of the Conchords

Barry Sonnenfeld is directing once more with Will Smith back on board reprising his role as Jay and Josh Brolin attached to play a younger version of Kay (Tommy Lee Jones). There’s no word on when principal photography will start, but since Columbia Pictures is settling the release date for this picture to be within 2012, don’t expect for them to start filming anytime soon.

Jemaine Clement will be doing the voice of Tim in the voice star-studded animated film Despicable Me, releasing in theaters on July 9th.

The films currently under BBC Films’ slate include the upcoming Stephen Frears directed feature Tamara Drewe. Another project recently announced by the company is Three Sixty, written by Peter Morgan. Another project that jumped onto the fast track is The Invisible Woman, based off the novel by Claire Tomalin, which is being put together by scribe Abi Morgan, says Variety.

Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are reprising their roles once more, but along with that there’s also rumor that Josh Brolin is being eyed by Columbia to play a younger version of Jones’ Agent K, says Collider. Set to direct the picture is Barry Sonnenfeld  from the script written by Etan Cohen. Read on to see what the head of Sony’s marketing says on the interesting new announcement.:

Commenting on the announcement, Jeff Blake, Chairman of Sony Pictures Worldwide Marketing and Distribution said, “Sony’s summer of 2012 will get off to a red hot start with an incredible new 3D adventure for the Men in Black. We couldn’t be more excited that the original filmmaking team responsible for the first two worldwide hits is reuniting for this third installment. We love where the story is taking Agents Jay and Kay and know this new chapter will deliver a fresh fun twist for fans of the franchise while also introducing the Men in Black to a whole new generation of moviegoers.”

“It’s really realistic,” the comedian revealed to MTV News recently, addressing rumors that he’ll re-team with Bay and the former Fresh Prince once again. “We’ve talked about ‘Bad Boys 3.’ “

“Any time you can get Big Willie to come out and talk about doing a third installment of a hot movie like ‘Bad Boys,’ you have to take notice,” Lawrence explained. “I met with Michael Bay, and he said he’s onboard too — so it’s real.”

Writer Peter Craig is putting together a script for Columbia, and the “Bad Boys” team is ready. “I got Big Willie to come down and see me about the movie. I felt special,” Lawrence said of a visit Smith paid to his friend recently to talk about getting the band back together, adding that at this point, the green light is in the hands of the franchise producer. “We’re just waiting on Jerry Bruckheimer to let us know when it’s really real.”

The rumor has been tossed around for some time, but it’s only been a matter of pure speculation, especially when you have not only director Michael Bay’s schedule to figure out but also Lawrence and Will Smith.

Are you down for having a third Bad Boys film, or do you think that two was enough? Share your thoughts.