Retro aliens for 'Men In Black 3'

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Men In Black 3 banner at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con. Picture credt: Collider.com

Legendary monster make-up artist Rick Baker made an appearance yesterday at the 2011 Comic-Con in San Diego where he spoke enthusiastically about about his latest alien creature designs for Barry Sonnenfeld's forthcoming Men In Black 3.

As parts of the movie are set in the past - 1969 to be precise - Baker has been able to indulge his passion for retro alien beasties. Baker told his Comic-Con audience:

Rick Baker (far left) supervises one of his alien creations during the
filming of Men In Black (1997)

“Right from the first movie, I was always saying to Barry [Sonnenfeld], ‘Let’s do aliens that look like aliens we’ve already seen... Let’s say that Paul Blaisdell, who did the effects for Invasion Of The Saucer Men, actually had a real encounter with an alien and tried to recreate it on film, so there are saucermen in the Men In Black headquarters. And let’s have E.T. in there, operating the phone.' Barry didn’t like any of those ideas, he thought they were stupid. But when Men In Black 3 came along and I heard about the time-travel element, I said, ‘Okay, it’s set in 2012, so we’ll have aliens that look like 2012 aliens in that part of the film. But when we go back to 1969, wouldn’t it be cool to have retro aliens? Big brains, bug eyes, stuff like that?’ I thought they should have a totally different, retro feel. And they agreed to it, thank God. So I got to make a whole bunch of cool stuff.”

Executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Men In Black 3 has been a troubled shoot so far. It is tentatively scheduled for a May 2012 release.

For more details on this story, head on over to Empire.