In what sounds like a Hollywood fever dream, Channing Tatum is campaigning for a blockbuster franchise crossover that would truly be out of this world.
Following the news in the 2014 Sony email leak, Tatum confirmed that a crossover of 21 Jump Street and Men in Black, entitled MIB 23, was once in development, and he’s still hoping the ambitious movie gets made.
“There is a project that was written and it’s still the best script that I’ve ever read for a third movie,” he told ComicBook.com after starring alongside Jonah Hill in the 2012 action comedy 21 Jump Street and its sequel 22 Jump Street (2014).
An adaptation of the 1987-1991 Fox series, they played two arguably youthful-looking cops assigned to go undercover in a high school. Original stars Johnny Depp, Holly Robinson and Peter DeLuise made cameos in the movie, with Richard Grieco and Dustin Nguyen appearing in the sequel.
When Tatum’s Fly Me to the Moon co-star Scarlett Johansson asked what happened to the plan sequel — which was written by Jump Street scribes Phil Lord and Chris Miller and ultimately abandoned by 2019 — he said it came down to “a lot of bureaucracy, kind of above the line stuff.”
Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum and Dave Franco in 21 Jump Street (2012). (Scott Garfield/Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)
“It’s really hard to get it made and we’ve been trying to get it done,” said Tatum, noting that he’s not not ready to give up on MIB 23.
“You know what, I’m going to put some good juju out there and I’m going to say I would love to see 23 Jump Street,” he added. “I would love to do it with Jonah, and Jonah I know wants to do it. We would love to just get to go play again.”
According to Time, the crossover would have seen Tatum and Hill’s characters as the extraterrestrial government agency’s newest recruits. In the 2014 Sony leak, Hill said the script for MIB 23 was “clean and rad and powerful.” Men in Black stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were not expected to join the crossover in any major capacity.
Sister screenwriters Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Loeglin previously wrote a female-led spin-off entitled Jump Street: Now For Her Pleasure, which was reportedly looking to cast Zendaya, Awkwafina and Tiffany Haddish.