It was pretty surprising that a gimmick movie like 21 Jump Street, coming after Hollywood’s big wave of “classic” TV shows being adapted as movies had passed, cleaned up at the box office to the tune of $201 million. We chalked that up to 2012 being the Year of C-Tates, as our favorite hardest working playboy in show business had three movies break the $100 million mark that year. But then people proved that it was no fluke, and they simply love tongue-in-cheek and actually funny parodies, when they gave 22 Jump Street the second biggest opening ever for a rated R comedy back in June.
Of course, with 22 Jump Street earning $319 million worldwide, there really shouldn’t have been any doubt that a 23 Jump Street would be in the works, unless Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill were suddenly allergic to collecting easy paychecks. According to Deadline, C-Tates and Hill are already on board for a third film, and writer Rodney Rothman has been tabbed by Sony Pictures to pen the script again.
The big question is whether Phil Lord and Christopher Miller will be back to direct the third film. I can report that they are overseeing the script with Rothman as producers on the third film with Neal Moritz, Hill and Tatum. The directing job is theirs if they want it, but insiders said they haven’t committed to direct at this point. (Via Deadline)
Between this franchise and The Lego Movie’s success, Lord and Miller have pretty much reached the point that they can direct whatever the hell they want. Next up for them is the Fox series The Last Man on Earth, which will air in 2015 and star Will Forte as, well, read the title. After that, who knows? They could take the fat bags with dollar signs on them from Sony and direct 23 Jump Street, or they can take slightly smaller bags and simply produce.
At this rate, the only real question isn’t whether or not they’ll do this movie or if it will indeed take place at medical school, but when Lord and Miller get their own Marvel and/or Star Wars project.