JUMP STREET & MEN IN BLACK to Crossover - Sony Hack

[AndyDursin]

More great emails spilling out of the Sony hack...lol

I love the comment "it's clean and rad and fresh" -- this woman is running Sony Pictures. My god.

What a weird concept if they water down the R-rated JUMP STREET franchise, though obviously Sony wanted to use this as a springboard for a new MIB franchise at the same time. Wonder if Spielberg will sign off on it.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/12/ ... crossover/

Sony Pictures has surprising plans for its “Jump Street” and “Men in Black” franchises: Combining them.

E-mails from the studio’s motion picture chief Amy Pascal leaked onto the Internet this week by hackers reveal that a follow-up to this year’s comedy hit “22 Jump Street” will have cops played by Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum interacting with the universe of the sci-comedy franchise “Men in Black,” which previously starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

Details on the movie are scarce, but the e-mails do indicate Messrs. Smith and Jones would not be included in the movie, at least in prominent roles. Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who directed the last two “Jump Street” films, are producing the picture and may direct it.

In an e-mail to Ms. Pascal, Mr. Hill says “jump street merging with mib i think that’s clean and rad and powerful.”

In another e-mail, Hannah Minghella, a president of production for Sony’s Columbia Pictures label, says of the joint sequel, “We don’t have a script yet so we’ll be greenlighting the movie off the concept and the talent involved.”

E-mails indicate it is one of the highest profile projects on the studio’s slate and that executives are eager to move ahead with the film as soon as possible. Sony is hoping to release the movie in 2016 or 2017.

A mash-up of franchises is unusual, but could fit the irreverent tone of the “Jump Street” movies. In addition to providing an unexpected follow-up to a hit, Sony executives say in e-mails that they hope the crossover will reinvigorate “Men in Black.” 2012’s “Men in Black 3” grossed $624 million worldwide, but lost money for the studio and did not excite fans for a quick follow-up.

In a letter to Steven Spielberg’s attorney seeking to secure the filmmaker’s participation (Mr. Spielberg was an executive producer of the “Men in Black” films), Sony Pictures president of worldwide business affairs and operations Andrew Gumpert wrote, “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.”