Tessa Thompson has confirmed her presence in the upcoming Men In Black spin-off opposite Chris Hemsworth, while also teasing that the film will have a ‘global scope’ and an ‘international team.’
Thompson made this admission to me over the weekend when I sat down to talk to the actress about her work on “Little Woods,” which is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Right at the end of our conversation I asked Thompson about the rumors she has joined the “Men In Black” spin-off, at which point she nodded her head and declared, “It is happening.”
This even provoked her co-star Lily James, who was sat alongside us with “Little Woods’s” director Nia DaCosta, to instantly declare, “So cool.”
Thompson had more to say on the film, though, as she added, “We’re doing it. It is super happening.”
“Chris Hemsworth and myself are back at them, F. Gary Gray is directing. It is a really fun fantastic script. I really love those movies. I think they hold up. I watched them again recently. I really love them.”
“And it is taking the ‘Men In Black’ franchise and setting it now and making it global in scope. It is like an international team so you get to see sort of agents across the globe.”
Thompson wasn’t the only person at the table to discuss her upcoming projects with me, as I also took this opportunity to ask Lily James about Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis’ musical themed comedy movie that she is starring in. Specifically whether Ed Sheeran was involved, but she wasn’t quite ready to confirm his presence.
After revealing that shooting was due to start on Thursday and that she is currently deep into rehearsals, she responded to my queries about Sheeran’s involvement with, “I don’t know what I can say. Yeah, yeah. I think yeah. I’m not sure. But I’ve heard those rumors, too.”
“It is a great idea. I am so excited to work with Danny Boyle. When I met him and started working on scenes with him I instantly knew I had to do it with him.”
Nia DaCosta, whose work on “Little Woods” is particularly astounding and evocative, especially since it was her directorial debut, also provided details on what promises to be her very bright future, laying out the details for her next two films.
“I am making a 1920s set musical adaptation of Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion’ for BBC Films, I am setting it in the black clubs, jazz clubs, queer clubs of Soho London. Which was an amazingly alive, diverse, complex, and interesting place in the 1920s.”
“Then I am also developing a sci-fi space film set in the future. It is a murder mystery. Like ‘Alien’ without the alien.”
Since all of those projects are around a year away, make sure to check out James and Thompson’s titanic efforts in Da Costa’s “Little Woods.”
In “Little Woods,” Tessa Thompson plays Ollie, a former drug smuggler that used to bring prescription pills across the Canadian border into the titular town in North Dakota. Ollie is forced to go back to her old trade in order the buy the home of her deceased mother, especially after her estranged sister Deb (Lily James) reveals she is pregnant.
