Museum of the Moving Image Presents MEN IN BLACK 3 Props, 5/9-9/23

Outrageously imaginative aliens and creatures designed by legendary makeup artist Rick Baker for the forthcoming film Men in Black™ 3 will be on exhibit with fantastical guns and other iconic props from the film at Museum of the Moving Image from May 9 through September 23, 2012. Aliens, Gadgets, and Guns: Designing the World of Men in Black 3 features over 25 objects integral to the design of the amazing yet utterly believable world of Men in Black, plus exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of Baker creating special effect makeup, generously loaned to the Museum by Columbia Pictures. The exhibit will be located in the Museum’s core exhibition Behind the Screen, and will be accompanied by screenings and personal appearances in the Museum’s main theater.

Seven-time Academy Award-winning special-effect makeup artist Rick Baker, who designed the aliens for all three Men in Black films, will make a personal appearance with a preview screening of Men in Black 3 on Thursday, May 24, at 8:00 p.m.; tickets are $20 public / $12 Museum members and free for Silver Screen members and above. The Museum will also screen the first Men in Black film on Wednesday, May 23. See details below.

“The Museum is thrilled to exhibit these exquisitely crafted objects that help define the extraordinary world of Men in Black. We’re particularly honored to exhibit the spectacular work of Rick Baker,” said Barbara Miller, the Museum’s Collection Curator. “These masks, creatures, and props perfectly complement our core exhibition Behind the Screen, where we explore all aspects of how moving images are made, marketed, and shown.”

Rick Baker added, “I’m excited that my work for Men in Black 3 will be on display at the Museum of the Moving Image. It’s a true pleasure to work on a Men in Black film and I think this exhibit gives a good taste of some of the fun we have in store in the movie.”

In Men in Black™ 3, Agents J and K (Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones) are back... in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K’s life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him— secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K (Josh Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind. Barry Sonnenfeld directs the film. The film’s screenplay is written by Etan Cohen, based on the Malibu Comic by Lowell Cunningham. Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald produce, and Steven Spielberg and G. Mac Brown are the executive producers. Men in Black 3 opens nationwide on May 25.

The sequences set in 1969 required that many of the props—such as neuralyzers (memory erasers), guns, and cell phones—be re-imagined in a retro-futuristic style. The exhibit, Aliens, Gadgets, and Guns: Designing the World of Men in Black 3, features these and other objects made under the supervision of the film’s property master Douglas Harlocker, including a singular “time jump” device used by Agent J, Men in Black binders with alien questionnaires (with real questions), an alien passport reader, and many fantastical firearms. A life-size futuristic “monocycle” from the film will be exhibited in the Museum’s lobby.

The selection of six alien masks also reflect the two different time periods, with some making obvious design references to how space creatures were imagined in the 1950s and ‘60s. The two creatures featured in the exhibit are timeless examples of Baker’s fertile imagination. Behind-the-scenes footage of Baker in his studio and on the set of Men in Black 3 demonstrates the process of applying the elaborate special effect makeup in the film.

Special thanks to Peter Lozito, Columbia Pictures, and Bill Sturgeon of Cinovation.