It sounds almost too bizarre to be true -- a Men in Black and 23 Jump Street crossover film is coming from Sony Pictures. Maybe
If this were just rumor it would be easy to dismiss, but according to emails from the studio's motion picture chief leaked onto the web by hackers, Sony is apparently moving full speed ahead with having buddy cops Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum interacting with members of the Men in Black in a new movie.
So far it doesn't look like Men In Black stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones will be returning for the crossover film, but other details are scarce. There currently is no script, but Sony is green-lighting the movie solely based on "the talent involved." The film could possibly be directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who will be producing the new film after having directed the last two Jump Street movies.
In what is quite possibly the best leaked email of the year, Hill responds to an email from Sony motion picture chief Amy Pascal about the proposed movie with "jump street merging with mib i think that's clean and rad and powerful."
So what does Sony see in combining these two seemingly completely unrelated franchises?
For starters, Sony is looking to reinvigorate the Men In Black franchise after the third film failed to meet expectations in 2012, and it looks like the studio is attempting to get Steven Spielberg on board. Spielberg served as an executive producer on previous Men In Black films.
Worldwide business affairs and operations Andrew Gumpert writes in a letter to Steven Spielberg's attorney's email, "We didn't do as well as we had hoped for on the last MIB film, but that hasn't caused us to lose faith in the franchise. In reality, the exact opposite has occurred where we all have an opportunity to take an interim step on the way to hopefully forging ahead again in the pure-play MIB universe."
Second, the Jump Street films are one of Sony's more recent success stories, with 22 Jump Street bringing in nearly $200 million domestically on a budget of $50. If you really think about it, both franchises do share some common ground. They are both "buddy cop" comedies (though one also has aliens) with a duo of charismatic funny men driving the film. Though it still sounds strange and is a testament to how desperately Hollywood is running out of ideas, it could work. "Could" being the keyword. We'll wait and see.
