Barry Sonnenfeld, the director of Men In Black III told Empire Magazine that the concept behind the new installment of the hit franchise was all Will Smith's idea. Smith is reprising his role as alien combatant Agent J. According to Sonnefeld, Smith's character travels back in time to rescue his partner, the character played by Tommy Lee Jones.

Sonnefeld tells Empire (Via ContactMusic), "Will calls me Baz. When we were shooting 'Men In Black II' (in 2002), one night he said 'Hey Baz, I think I have an idea for number three'. The basic idea was that Will's character, Agent J, would have to go back into the past to save his partner. It allowed the movie to take place in another era, and us to learn more about Tommy Lee Jones' character. But it turned out to be a very long process of development, mainly because of the knotting issues of time travel, the time travel thing was really hard."

The movie began shooting without the finished script, which, according to Sonnenfeld, complicated the whole process.

He told Empire, "We knew starting the movie that we didn't have a finished second or third act. Was it responsible? The answer is, if the movie does as well as I think it will, it was genius. If it's a total failure, then it was a really stupid idea."

The film hits theaters in 3D on May 25th, 2012.

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