Will ‘Men in Black’ Director Barry Sonnenfeld Make A ‘Metal Men’ Movie?

As if Men In Black and his collaboration with Grant Morrison on Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens wasn't enough to demonstrate movie director Barry Sonnenfeld's comic credibility, perhaps this newly announced project will seal the deal. According to reports, Sonnenfeld plans to bring DC Comics' Metal Men to the big screen.Vulture is claiming that Sonnenfeld is attached to the long-gestating movie adaptation, which has been rumored for a number of years. It's a connection that makes some sense; not only does the off-beat Silver Age series about six robots with human personalities based around elements from the periodic table (created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru as last minute filler for an issue of Showcase after the originally-scheduled strip failed to meet its deadline, allegedly) offer the chance for visual spectacle, action and comedy that'd appeal to the director of the Addams Family and Men in Black movies -- not to mention the producer of Pushing Daisies -- but the characters were recently reworked by current Sonnenfeld collaborator Grant Morrison in 2006's 52 series.

Whether or not the movie will definitely happen is up in the air; the director described the project last month as "too early to talk about," and only a possibility. At the time, he called the project "a franchise based on a comic that hasn't been around since the 60s," which doesn't necessarily track to the Metal Men, who have not only had their own series as recently as 2008, but have also made appearances across media in things like Batman: The Brave and The Bold and the animated movie version of The New Frontier. But still: I am so into the possibility of this happening. Please Barry Sonnenfeld, don't make it suck.