Men in Black

Background:

“It's basically a remake of ‘The French Connection’ (1971) with aliens as a comedy.” Barry Sonnenfeld (about “Men in Black”)

Emmy Award winning director and producer Barry Sonnenfeld made a name for himself as a cinematographer during the early 1980s to early 1990s thanks in part to partnerships with the Coen brothers on “Blood Simple” (1984), from which he nabbed an Independent Spirit nomination, “Raising Arizona” (1987) and “Miller's Crossing” (1990). He also worked with director Rob Reiner on the widely popular romance “When Harry Met Sally...” (1989) and the critically acclaimed thriller “Misery” (1990). He made the transition to feature film director with “The Addams Family” (1991), which proved to be a financial success. He gained even bigger success with the summer blockbuster “Men in Black” (1997), from which he picked up a Mainichi Film Concours Award and a Saturn nomination for his directing efforts. He also helmed the successful sequel “Men in Black II” (2002), but suffered significant disappointment with “Wild Wild West” (1999). Sonnenfeld then put his feature directing career on hold to work as a television producer. He is probably best known as an executive producer of the critically acclaimed series “Pushing Daisies” (ABC, 2007-2009). Also directing episodes, Sonnenfeld won an Emmy Award and a Directors Guild of America Award for his work on the 2007 episode “Pie-lette.” Sonnenfeld has also produced several films, including “Out of Sight” (1998), “The Ladykillers” (2004) and “Enchanted” (2007).

Sonnenfeld and his wife Susan Ringo have one daughter together who appeared in “Men in Black,” “Men in Black II,” “Big Trouble,” and “RV.”

NYU

Childhood and Family:

Barry Sonnenfeld was born on April 1, 1953, in New York City, New York, in a Jewish family. The son of Sonny Sonnenfeld, a salesman, and Kelly Sonnenfeld, an art teacher at her son's elementary school, young Barry (because of his overprotective mother) spent his lunch time with teachers until he was in the sixth grade. He was educated at Eleanor Roosevelt Junior High School and at the High School of Music and Art, where he played the French horn in a city orchestra. After graduation, he studied political science at the Bronx campus of New York University, but transferred to Amherst College in Massachusetts. He went on to pursue an MFA degree at New York University and graduated in 1978.

In 1989, Barry married Susan Ringo. Their daughter, Chloe Sonnenfeld, was born in 1993. Barry also has two stepdaughters named Sasha and Amy.

Pushing Daisies

Career:

Barry Sonnenfeld became interested in lighting and camerawork while attending NYU. By the time he graduated, he had bought a 16mm camera. With his new camera, Sonnenfeld began looking for jobs, which led to shooting several porn films. It was not until 1982 that his luck started to change when he was hired as a cinematographer for the documentary film “In Our Water,” which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary, Features. He debuted on the small screen in1983 when he served as director of photography for the based on novel comedy “How to Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days” (PBS). He did not branch out to feature films until the following year when he was hired as a cinematographer for the Coen brothers' first movie, “Blood Simple” (1984), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Sundance Film Festival. For his effort, Sonnenfeld was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography. Sonnenfeld also shot the trailer for the film that enabled the Coen brothers to raise money for the project.

In 1985, Sonnenfeld gained notice on television when he picked up a Daytime Emmy in the category of Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for his work on a segment of the ABC Afterschool Special “Out of Step” (1984). The same year, he shot his first TV miniseries, “Doubletake,” a CBS thriller starring Richard Crenna and Beverly D'Angelo that earned an Edgar nomination for Best Television Feature or Miniseries. He returned to the big screen with work in Frank Perry's “Compromising Positions” (1985, starred Susan Sarandon and Raul Julia) and shot his first TV film, “Welcome Home, Bobby” (CBS), the following year. He also provided the second projection camera for Laurie Anderson's experimental concert film “Home of the Brave” and served as an additional photographer on the crime film “Wisdom,” starring and co-directed by Emilio Estevez (all 1986).

After working on the CBS television film “Classified Love” (1986), Sonnenfeld was reunited with the Coen Brothers as a cinematographer for the comedy “Raising Arizona” (1987), a vehicle for Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter. He followed it up with work as a cinematographer or director of photography on such films as Phil Joanou's “Three O'Clock High” (1987), Danny DeVito's “Throw Momma from the Train” (1987), Penny Marshall's “Big” (1988) and Rob Reiner's blockbuster romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally...” (1989). Sonnenfeld was reunited with the Coen Brothers as the director of photography for the drama “Miller's Crossing” (1990) and took on the same duty for the acclaimed thriller “Misery” (1990), his second collaboration with Reiner.

In 1991, Sonnenfeld made his feature film directorial debut with “The Addams Family,” a dark comedy adapted from the fictional characters of the cartoon of the same name created by cartoonist Charles Addams. Starring Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston as Gomez and Morticia Addams, respectively, the $38 million budget film was considered a commercial success with a domestic gross of over $113 million and a worldwide gross of over $191 million. Two years later, he directed Michael J. Fox and Grabielle Anwar in “For Love or Money” (1993), but unlike its predecessor, the romantic comedy film was a failure at the box office. Later that same year, he helmed the sequel “Addams Family Values” (1993), which enjoyed more critical praise than the first. He also had a small role in the film playing Mr. Glicker.

Sonnenfeld next directed John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Dennis Farina, Delroy Lindo, James Gandolfini and Danny DeVito in “Get Shorty” (1995), in which he also had a cameo role and served as an executive producer. An adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name, the movie won the director a Golden Berlin Bear nomination at the 1996 Berlin International Film Festival. However, Sonnenfeld did not experience a real blockbuster until he helmed the science fiction action film “Men in Black,” starring Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith and Vincent D'Onofrio. Based on Lowell Cunningham's comic book series of the same name, the movie collected more than $589 million worldwide with an estimated budget of $90 million. Also a hit with critics, it won an Academy Award for Best Makeup and Sonnenfeld took home a Readers' Choice Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1998 Mainichi Film Concours and a Saturn nomination for Best Director.

After the huge success of “Men in Black,” Sonnenfeld stayed away from the director's chair for a time to focus his energy on producing. In 1998, he served as an executive producer on Steven Soderbergh's “Out of Sight” and turned to series TV with the short lived ABC remake “Fantasy Island” (1998-1999). He also executive produced the comedy series “Maximum Bob” (1998) and the unsold TV series pilot “Partners” (1999). Sonnenfeld made a comeback to motion picture directing with the 1999 remake “Wild Wild West,” which reunited him with “Men in Black” star Will Smith. The film met with negative reviews and was not a success at the box office. It picked up five Razzie Awards, including Best Picture, Worst Screenplay and Worst Director.

Back to the small screen, Sonnenfeld took on the duty of executive producer for “Secret Agent Man,” a TV series that aired on UPN in 2000. He also directed three episodes called “From Prima with Love,” “TKO Henry” and “The Breach.” He then served as executive producer and occasional director of the Fox series “The Tick” (2001-2002) and produced the film “The Crew” (2000), for director Michael Dinner and stars Richard Dreyfuss and Burt Reynolds. He then produced and directed the comedy “Big Trouble” (2002), based on a novel of the same name by Dave Barry, and later that same year returned to the director's chair for the sequel “Men in Black II,” which again starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. The film received mixed reviews but was a commercial success. It grossed over $190 million in the United States and over $251 million overseas, for a total gross of over $441 million against a $140 million budget.

After nearly a decade and a half, Sonnenfeld was reunited with old friends Ethan and Joel Coen as the producer of “The Ladykillers” (2004), a remake of the 1955 dark comedy of the same name. Starring Tom Hanks, the film won the Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. The same year, he lent his producing talents to the Oscar winning adventure film “Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events,” starring Jim Carrey and directed by Brad Silberling, and the short lived ABC series “Karen Sisco,” created by Elmore Leonard.

In 2006, Sonnenfeld directed Robin Williams, Cheryl Hines and Jeff Daniels in the comedy film “RV,” his first film directorial effort in four years. The film received negative reviews but was a moderate success on the international market. He then produced the fantasy film “Enchanted” (2007), helmed by Kevin Lima and starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Idina Menzel, Rachel Covey and Susan Sarandon. The film was well received by critics and a commercial success. He also produced “Space Chimps” (2008), a computer animated comedy directed by Kirk De Micco. It received mixed reviews from critics and was a moderate box office hit.

On the small screen, Sonnenfeld served as executive producer and directed episodes of the ABC mid season replacement “Notes from the Underbelly” (2007-2008), based on the novel of the same name by Risa Gree. He also directed and executive produced the comedy series “Suburban Shootout” (2008), based on the 2006 British series of the same name, and helmed the TV series pilot “Hackett” (2008).

Sonnenfeld scored success on TV with the Bryan Fuller created series “Pushing Daisies,” which debuted on October 3, 2007, on ABC. The comedy series was well received by critics and enjoyed strong ratings during the first season. In addition to serving as executive producer, Sonnenfeld also directed the episodes “Pie-lette” and “Dummy” (both 2007). For his work in the first, he picked up an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series and a DGA for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Comedy Series.

In 2009, Sonnenfeld completed directing the ABC TV film “The Bridget Show,” starring Lauren Graham.

Awards:

• Emmy: Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, “Pushing Daisies,” For episode “Pie-Lette,” 2008

• Directors Guild of America (DGA): Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series, “Pushing Daisies,” 2008

• Razzie: Worst Director, “Wild Wild West,” 2000

• Mainichi Film Concours: Readers' Choice Award, Best Foreign Language Film, “Men in Black,” 1998

• Cinequest San Jose Film Festival: Maverick Tribute Award, 1998

• Daytime Emmy: Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography, “ABC Afterschool Specials,” 1985