Men In Black 3 has been filming the past week in Brooklyn near the corner of Court and Livingston, production usually kicks up in the evening and I’m sure the residents are thrilled. So far, no sightings of Will Smith’s gargantuan trailer, just 50 or so classic cars from the 60′s and a bit of signage “Zig Zag Records” which has been placed, removed and replaced over a T-Mobile store. It was interesting to note that a few days prior to filming all the (working) phone booths on the street were removed, wonder if they’ll be back after this is over. Aside from cars driving down the street, backing up and doing it all over again, it hasn’t been all that exciting, though the shooting schedule seems to be from about 9pm-5am, so I might be missing the good stuff. A few of the cars have stickers on them that say “Crash Stunt” and it appears they are filming a chase scene. Tonight there were three motorcycles being kept under wraps beneath blue tarp, I got a look at one as the wind picked up and blew aside the cover and it appears that there is some sort of alien element to it, I saw a few people with cameras snap some pics, so they will probably be online at some point.
At first I thought this guy on the motorcycle was just a camera operator, but if you look closely there is some molded plastic on the front of the bike that resembles a face. This would fit in with the two other bikes I got a quick glimpse of which looked alien in appearance and had more exotic modifications to the chassis.
The Zig-Zag Records signage appears to be a replica of the sign which hung above the real, recently closed Zig-Zag Records in Sheepshead Bay. Luckily for us though, they took the sign down when they finished filming, because there are never enough T-Mobile outlets.
According to IMDB, Barry Sonnenfeld is returning to direct this installment of the cash grab. Strangely enough, in the late 1990′s I had the opportunity to have a drink with Mr. Sonnenfeld in Montauk, Long Island. It was the dead of winter and I’d just finished whatever menial labor I was temporarily enslaved in and I needed a drink… there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment in Montauk during the winters and less than a handful of bars to pass the time, but the Montauket, (a local dive renowned for it’s sunsets) had stayed open. I walked or hitchhiked my way there, sat down at the end of the bar and treated myself to a murky glass of what was purported to be Budweiser on tap. The bar was completely empty save for the bartender and a quiet, undistinguished gentleman a few seats away. Alcohol being what it is, we eventually struck up a conversation to kill the awkward silence that wasn’t quite drowned out by the scratchy Rolling Stones songs coming from the jukebox. Eventually we got around to the whole “what do you do?” part of the spiel and he said that he made movies, I asked him if I would know anything he worked on and he said that he directed “Get Shorty”. Being an Elmore Leonard fan at the time, I had seen the flick.. “You’re Barry Sonnenfeld?” He said that he was, and the haze of overindulgence may have clouded my memory, but I’m pretty sure he pulled out his license to prove it. Apparently he lived or was staying in East Hampton and wanted to get away, so he had come to the right place.
