Jeff Nathanson Doing 'Men In Black 3D' Rewrite/Polish; Production Split Into Two Segments

New info on Men in Black 3: the film will start shooting this week in New York, but there's a wrinkle. The production has hired frequent Steven Spielberg and Brett Ratner collaborator Jeff Nathanson to rewrite/polish one section of the script. (He recently did work on Tower Heist, wrote Rush Hour 2 & 3 and The Terminal, Catch Me If You Can and worked on Indy IV.) The parts that he's not dealing with shoot this year, and then, after a break, the production will resume to shoot the balance of the picture.

Confused yet? The details involve potential spoilers, so we've kept them after the break. (And, really, the spoiler info, such as it is, will likely be revealed in the trailer. We're just being safe.)

The LA Times has these new details. Here's the layout: Men in Black 3 has two big story components: a section set in the present day and a time-travel aspect that will see Josh Brolin playing the young version of Tommy Lee Jones' character.

The time-travel segment is what Jeff Nathanson is working on, and it is that part that will shoot in 2011. The present-day scenes will shoot starting tomorrow, then the film will break for a couple months, and then resume in February. Presumably any details in the present-day scenes that need to be tweaked can either be dealt with on the fly before the holidays, or addressed through reshoots next year.

It's an interesting tactic to keep the film on some sort of schedule; it has already seen about a month worth of postponement. Barry Sonnenfeld is directing the film; Will Smith returns along with Tommy Lee Jones. Other new cast additions include Jemaine Clement as the villain. Etan Cohen wrote the script that got the production moving, but there has been some dissent on the story, which led to the production delay and likely this rewrite.