Five Film Facts: 'Men in Black 3'

Ten years after the first sequel, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones get back to the business of busting alien bad guys when "Men in Black 3" opens wide this weekend. While there may be plenty of familiar territory covered, there are a number of changes to keep the action and comedy as fresh as ever. Not the least of which, for the first time, Agents J and K will come to life in dazzling 3D. The film also happens to be Smith's first in 3D, which has the actor more than a little worried about how big his ears will look. We all know Smith will look just fine, but here are five fun facts about the film you might want to know.

Home on the Range
Smith's been away from acting since appearing in "Hancock" in 2008, but it's not like he's been loafing. Actually, Smith's been hard at work helping to turn his progeny into globally popular performers. Smith explains that he's been living out one of his childhood dreams: "I was a child of 'Dallas.' I've dreamed about this life my entire life. On 'Dallas' they had Southfork. Sue Ellen would come to breakfast and the whole family was there and everybody worked the family business. That was my vision of my family. So for me, coming into that space... 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. I was like, 'Hey! What are you doing?' For me the last three years, have been really seeing how much everyone has their own opinion. Everybody has their own ideas and everybody has their own lives that may or may not fit into my Sue Ellen vision."

Diet of the Stars
Director Barry Sonnenfeld, who also directed the first two "MIB" installments, is a savvy veteran of the industry, having started as a cameraman in porn, worked as the Coen brothers' cinematographer, and directed and produced some 20 titles. But Sonnenfeld had never faced a production quite like this. In order to capitalize on New York state tax incentives and to take advantage of Smith's soon-to-be-busy schedule, shooting began in November 2010 without a completed script. In December, the production went on hiatus to finish the script, and didn't begin shooting again until April of 2011. The budget reportedly boomed to over $200 million. So how did all the difficulties affect Sonnenfeld? "Well, I got to lose 30 pounds through stress. Some people use Metrecal and some use other methods, but I think the best dietary technique is to direct an incredibly difficult, complicated visual-effects comedy without a final script when you start."

Green Gosling
Fans of the franchise have come to expect some pretty amazing revelations as to which celebrities among us are actually aliens. A short while back, Sonnenfeld announced that Tim Burton, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber would be among the aliens under surveillance in "MIB 3." Newcomer Josh Brolin believes he's also got the ability to spot aliens among us, citing one in particular that might surprise you: Ryan Gosling. When asked why, Brolin divulges: "Because Ryan Gosling is other-planetary. I'm still learning his language. I did a whole movie with him, but I think he might be an alien." (Gosling and Brolin appear together in "Gangster Squad," due out later this year.)

One for the Money
In the 10 years since "MIB 2," there was widespread speculation about the fate of a third installment. Smith knew all along that it would just be a matter of time before he donned the black suit and Ray-Bans again, seeing as he pitched the threequel's basic premise when they were working on "MIB 2." "It's actually an idea we've had for years -- we had the concept before the second movie -- but it needed time to mature," says Smith. However, Jones wasn't necessarily waiting for the story to mature. Generally speaking, when it comes to doing sequels, he takes a different sort of convincing: "I don't have to be talked into doing a sequel. I simply have to be convinced that it's worthwhile and that it pays very well."

Pitch Perfect
This is the third film in which Brolin and Jones have co-starred, but they have yet to share a scene; they were in two films together in 2007, "In the Valley of Elah" and "No Country for Old Men." In "MIB 3" Brolin plays a younger version of Jones. In order to perfect his imitation of Jones, Brolin relied on his their past experiences together, while also watching many of Jones's old films, including the first two installments of the franchise, over and over. But the work paid off, as Brolin is receiving rave reviews for his performance, including high praise from Smith: "As actors, when you're in a scene, it's like a tennis match. Me and Martin [Lawrence] have very different chemistry than me and Tommy Lee Jones. 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. It was absolutely stunning." Oddly enough, in an upcoming Jason Reitman film, "Labor Day" (2013), Brolin will be imitated himself by Tom Lipinski.