While director James Bobin had officially boarded the Sony Pictures Men in Black and 21 Jump Street franchise mashup, MIB 23, it seems the future of that project may now be in doubt. Jump Street franchise star/writer Jonah Hill has told the Toronto Sun that various showbiz complications may force him and his cohorts to abandon the concept.
“I had the idea, but I doubt that movie will get made,” Hill stated. “It’s too complicated. They’re trying to make all the deals, but it’s kind of impossible with all the ‘Men in Black’ stuff. The ‘Jump Street’ films were so fun to make and the whole joke of them was they were making fun of remakes and sequels and reboots and then now it’s become a giant sequel, reboot. It’s almost become what we were making fun of and it’s hard to maintain that joke when it’s so high stakes. I love Channing and I love (directors) Phil Lord and Chris Miller and I love making those movies — they’re a lot of fun. So I hope it works out.”
The threequel would find Hill and Channing Tatum’s Schmidt and Jenko joining up with the Men in Black agency, although Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones would theoretically not take part. While a parody of cash-generating movie crossovers and shared universes sounds like a blast, the fact that the project appears to be falling apart likely goes beyond mere creative concerns. Sony just took a bath on their Ghostbusters reboot (the losses are estimated by some outlets to be as high as $70 million), and Bobin’s Alice Through the Looking Glass — a sequel to a billion dollar movie — took in an embarrassing $289 million worldwide. Even if a third Jump Street flick were to persevere, there’s a good chance it would be with a new filmmaker at the helm and maybe leaning less on the franchise crossover gimmick.
