In one of the weirder things to come out of the Sony hacks, The Wrap has confirmed that the 21 Jump Street franchise is getting both a Men in Black crossover and a female-centric spinoff film. Both were mentioned in the leaked emails, and Sony has decided to move ahead with the projects and develop them simultaneously.
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum will be reprising their roles from the Jump Street films to join the ranks of the Men in Black, but no word if Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin or any of that franchise’s stars will be involved. The increasingly busy directors of the first two Jump Street films, Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie), will return to oversee the projects alongside Hill, Tatum and producer Neil Moritz.
While my mind boggles at the fact that there will be a Men in Black crossover with 21 Jump Street, there is a plan from Sony on how this film is reportedly being molded. 21 Jump Street lampooned reboots, 22 Jump Street took aim at sequels, and the Men in Black crossover will skewer everybody’s favorite new Hollywood trend: Shared Movie Universes. Are we really to that point already? There are plenty in the pipeline, but are there any other actual Shared Movie Universes beside Marvel currently on the big screen?
In the other side of this coin, the lady Jump Street film will be written by Lucia Aniello and Paul Downs (Broad City) and, according to the report, will have a tone similar to 21 Jump Street and its highly successful sequel 22 Jump Street. No cast is announced for lady Jump Street, but Fifty Shades of Grey star Dakota Johnson played a fellow cop in 21 Jump Street and writers Aniello and Downs have a wealth of talent to possibly choose from on Broad City.
No release date for either film has been announced, but as the casts begin to come together, expect Sony to make some more official announcements on the details soon.