SPIDER-VERSE Writers Discuss The 21 JUMP STREET and MEN IN BLACK Crossover Film "It Was a Crazy Thing To Try"
Spider-Verse writers and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller once tried to make a crazy movie crossover that would bring together 21 Jump Street and Men in Black. The movie would’ve been titled MIB 23 and there’s no doubt it would’ve ended up being a wild movie!
The first information about the movie was leaked in 2014 after that massive Sony Pictures hack. The movie was officially announced at CinemaCon seven years ago, but obviously, it never happened.
The film would have centered on undercover cops Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum) and followed them as they are recruited to join the top-secret organization established to monitor alien activity on Earth.
During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Lord and Miller talked about the movie, with Miller saying:
"It was a cool idea. I think most likely that opportunity has passed, but it was very fun. It was crazy. It was a crazy thing to try. One of those things where, if it works, it's incredible. And if it doesn't, you can take down two franchises. And so you know, the pressure was very high."
He went on to say that the project was “a missed opportunity. But there are a lot of those in life." A movie like this would have been a blast, and when talking about the reason why it didn’t happen, Channing Tatum previously said:
"There's [Men in Black producer Steven] Spielberg, [Jump Street producer] Neal Moritz, and [Men in Black producer] Walter Parkes. They're giant producers, y'know, on that. And then once everybody is kinda like, not willing to come off their fee, you end up having a producer fee that is essentially, maybe more than the actual budget on the movie."
But, Tatum still thinks that the movie could work. He said: "I still think it could work, I really do. And if Sony would ever really, like, do the hard work and figure out the producer problems that are inherent with that film, I think we can still do it. But right now, I don't know why, they're just not motivated to do it. It's a big overhead on that movie."
Tatum also said that the MIB 23 script from 22 Jump Street writer Rodney Rothman was "by and away the best third sequel to any franchise that I've ever read, in my entire life. I would not say that if I did not really believe it, because I don't like being wrong, like, specifically about that."
Lord talked about the unproduced project in a previous interview, saying:
“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 went on to share one of the concepts incorporated into the story, saying: “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.”
James Bobin (The Muppets, Alice Through The Looking Glass) was looking to direct and I would have loved to see the movie happen. While Tatum thinks the project is still possible, I doubt at this point it will ever be resurrected.