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Here is the official companion book to Men in Black, the blockbuster the sci-fi adventure comedy from Columbia Pictures and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment.
Since the 1950s, rumors have persisted of an ultra-secret government
agency whose mission is to police extraterrestrials living on Earth—a
kind of intergalactic immigration service. That's the premise of
this screen tale, which pits Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, as elite
Men in Black (MIB) agents, against an alien terrorist bent on
formenting war between opposing galaxies...with Earth caught in the
middle.
Along with Jones and Smith, the film also stars Linda Fiorentino as
Dr. Laurel Weaver, a New York City medical examiner who endures several
close encounters with alien corpses, and Vincent D'Onofrio as Edgar,
the terrorist "bug" from outer space, with a temper as ugly as his
insectoid body.
Men in Black is based on the Lowell Cunningham comic book
series and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, who brings to the film his
flair for action and the wry, stylish humor that made smash hits of Get Shorty and The Addams Family
series. The producers are Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald, who
currently head up motion picture production at DreamWorks; their
credits include producing credits on films such as Big Fish, Catch Me If You Can, Gladiator, and Minority Report. Steven Spielberg serves as executive producer.
Ed Solomon wrote the darkly funny screen story and screenplay, which are reprinted in complete form in this book.
Six-time Oscar®-winning makeup artist Rick Baker created an incredible array of alien life forms for Men in Black.
Some of these creatures are on the lam from the MIB; others assist the
agents at their high-tech secret headquarters in Lower Manhattan. The
movie's spectacular visual effects include aliens transforming into
humans (and vice versa), flying saucer crashes, and
gravity-defying supercars— all produced through the electronic wizardry
of Industrial Light & Magic, whose team assembled no less than 250
separate visual effects shots for the film. Visual effects chief (and
second unit director) Eric Brevig won the Academy Award® for his work
on Total Recall.
Men in Black is set mainly New York, and native New Yorker
Sonnenfeld uses its atmosphere of urban toughness and "anything can
happen" to great effect. It's the kind of place where you wouldn't be
surprised if the guy lurking in the late night laundromat turns out to
be an alien. The 1964 World's Fair site at Flushing Meadows is key to
the plot—the original landing site of the first aliens to arrive on
Earth and the setting for the movie's climactic scene.
Besides the screenplay, this book contains more than 150 full-color
photos, along with production design artwork and the behind-the-scenes
story of how the film was made. A special bonus section, The Official MIB Agent's Manual,
features profiles of America's "Most Wanted Aliens," a Weapons Catalog,
a Field Placement Evaluation for new recruits, the MIB Dress Code, and
agency procedures and protocols.
Are there really aliens living among us? After seeing Men in Black and reading this feature-packed book about it, you may look at the world in a different way. |
