There was a time—and this probably still holds true—when filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were thought to have a Midas touch that could turn the most unusual IP into hugely successful film franchises. At the peak of their success, when Lord and Miller had launched three big movie franchises, they were planning one of the more bonkers-sounding mashups in recent memory—a crossover of the Jump Street and Men in Black series. They revealed on the Happy. Sad. Confused. podcast (via Playlist) that the spinoff actually came "very, very close" to happening.
The Jump Street movies, a buddy cop series starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, were based on the popular television series of the same name.
Fans of 22 Jump Street would remember the hilarious fake sequel gag that played out in the film's end credits sequence. As it turns out, some of those tongue-in-cheek ideas were actually developed. It was during this time that news of the Jump Street/Men in Black crossover first emerged, with James Bobin's name being tossed around as the potential director.
Lord said:
"It's true that there have been a lot of these things developed. There was, believe it or not, a Men In Black/Jump Street crossover script that was very funny and very crazy that we really adored. Basically, the idea was Jonah and Channing, a thing happened while they were doing their medical school adventure that got them embroiled into the world of Men In Black and that got them teaming up to stop an alien takeover type of thing. It was very funny, it was crazy trying to manage these two franchises and not drive them both into the ground seemed like a real challenge."
Miller added:
"One of my favorite ideas was the Men In Black, the Black Suits were like martial arts belts that you had to work your way up to black and [the Jump Street guys] were issued powered blue Men In Black suits."
Lord and Miller broke onto the scene, first and foremost, as animators. They created the cartoon sitcom Clone High back in 2002, which enabled them to get their first feature directing gig—the 2009 hit, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. They made their feature live-action debut with 21 Jump Street in 2012. More recently, they won Oscars for producing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and earlier this month, debuted the Apple TV+ murder mystery series The Afterparty.
Like the Jump Street movies, the Men in Black franchise can also trace its origins back to pre-existing IP—it was based on a comic book series. Starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, the original trilogy ran from 1997 to 2012. A reboot—Men in Black: International—starred Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, and debuted to terrible reviews in 2019.
Although Lord and Miller didn't reveal any concrete plans for more Jump Street movies, they seemed to hint on the podcast that something might be in the works. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates!
via Collider
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