‘Men In Black’ Director Barry Sonnenfeld May Direct Warner Bros Movie Based On Secret ’60s Comic Book Property

Since starting as his career as the cinematographer for the Coen Brothers, Barry Sonnenfeld has led a successful career as a director, a few rough patches notwithstanding (“Wild Wild West”) and this Friday sees his first new film in six years, the “surprisingly decent” “Men In Black 3,” hit theaters. And it looks like he’s already looking for his next project.

In an interview with Comic Book Movie (via Slashfilm), Sonnenfeld revealed that he’s been “talking to Warner Bros. about doing a franchise based on a comic that hasn’t been around since the 60s.” He goes on to say that it’s still in the early stages, so don’t expect any concrete details just yet.

As Slashfilm speculates, the comic property would almost certainly have to be DC-related, as Warner Bros. restructured DC Comics in 2009 for the specific purpose of creating new franchises, which the company is in desperate need of after the end of the “Harry Potter” series and the imminent end of Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy. The problem is that Sonnenfeld specifically mentions that the subject of the talks is a comic book property that hasn’t been around since the 60s. One reader came up with a rather obscure list of characters that include Captain Atom, Metamorpho, and The Question.

Despite the fact that Marvel is seemingly moving forward with an “Ant Man” movie, we really can’t see their rival studio gambling on any of those obscure characters, so it’s likely that Sonnenfeld simply misspoke and meant the comic book was created in the '60s. Only time will tell, but in the meantime, you can check out “Men In Black 3” in theaters from Friday.