WHAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED:

IN MY OPINION:

WILLIAM REYNOLDS:

WHAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED:

Twenty yrs ago this week Men in Black was released. Originally Steven Spielberg wanted Chris Odonell fresh of his Batman movie and Clint Eastwood to play the roles. They couldn't get either one so Barry Sonnenfield called Will Smith and lied to him, saying he wanted him all along, along with Tommy Lee Jones for the lead roles. They agreed and who knows what possible disaster they avoided. The movie cost 90 Million to produce and grossed over 600 million worldwide, and started the franchise

Questionable ethics of what Sonnenfeld did aside, one can’t argue with the results. Smith ended up being the perfect choice for J, and proved to have tremendous chemistry with Jones as a duo. Without those two actors, MIB would arguably have not been nearly the hit it was, nor spawned such an enduring franchise, complete with copious amounts of tie-in merchandise and even theme park rides.

On the other hand, one wonders what O’Donnell thinks about Sonnenfeld’s trickery. Considering that he’s gone to on to have a successful career in his own right – although granted not to the level of Smith – one assumes he’s probably gotten over it by now. Either way, in some alternate universe, O’Donnell and Eastwood starred in Men in Black, and that is a strange thought indeed.