Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in MEN IN BLACK 2
© Columbia Pictures

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Sonnenfeld talks about trouble of topping MEN IN BLACK

In an interview with CINESCAPE's own Eric Moro, MEN IN BLACK 2 director Barry Sonnenfeld lamented the difficulty of producing a sequel to one of the most popular genre films of the last ten years.

While talking about the struggle to top 1997's MEN IN BLACK, Sonnenfeld told us, "What's interesting is oftentimes, and BACK TO THE FUTURE may be the exception, one of the things that makes a sequel successful is if the first movie wasn't very good," says Sonnenfeld. "For example, I thought that AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME was a better movie than the first one. What I'm worried about is that the first [MEN IN BLACK film] at the end of the day ended up being a decent movie, and I'm a little worried that we are going to be compared to the first one. So how much do you make it different so people don't see the jokes coming? How do you make a sequel without making the same movie over again, and screwing up what was working?"

One of the things that made making MEN IN BLACK 2 easier was finally hitting the right working relationship with one of his stars, Tommy Lee Jones.

"On the first movie, I think Tommy didn't understand my version of comedy," Sonnenfeld told us. "But having finally seen the first movie when it came out, Tommy realized that I wasn't trying to make him not funny, I was trying to make him really funny. Tommy loves what he did on that movie and now has so embraced it that I remember doing a take at the very beginning of [MEN IN BLACK 2] and I cut and said, 'Hey, Tommy. I want to do one more and here's what I want you to do.' And Tommy said, 'You want me to do absolutely nothing. I get it.' But he said it with a joyful, thrilled, delightful face."