Director Barry Sonnenfeld didn't exactly have a huge hit with Men in Black 3, but with more than half a billion dollars in global grosses and surprisingly warm reviews, it's safe to say he's escaped with his life, which didn't seem so certain back when the movie was trapped in production limbo and endless script rewrites. With that film out of the way and no apparent plans for another one (though, god knows, it's not out of the question), Sonnenfeld is free to move on to something original-- or, well, something that hasn't yet been turned into a film, at least.
He had teased before that he was working on a film based on a comic book from the 60s, and Vulture has figured out which one: The Metal Men. Like any good bit of arcana from the past, the Metal Men have their own fan site where you can catch up on the characters, who are robots created created by the genius Doc Magnus. Each of them is made of a certain element and carries the qualities of each, in a way that would probably make your high school chemistry teacher lose her mind-- Gold is the most pliant member of the group and also the leader, Platinum is the flashy token girl, Lead is the reliable but dim-witted sidekick, Iron is the muscle, Mercury is the hothead, and Tin is the insecure one with a stutter. The 60s were a glorious time, you guys.
The source material sounds unendingly goofy, but don't count out Sonnenfeld, who didn't just make magic with the original Men in Black, but also managed to adapt The Addams Family into a really rewarding movie in the early 90s. Of course, he also adapted another 60s property-- the TV show Wild Wild West-- into a disastrous film, but you can't win them all.
