Caffeinated Clint
Loved “21 Jump Street”. It’s truly one of my favourite film adaptions of an old TV series – right next to Dick Donner’s “Maverick”, DePalma’s “Mission : Impossible” and, in terms of comedies, the “Addam’s Family” movies. I spoke to directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller about the film recently, and in addition to yabbering away on their current movie – due out next month – I quizzed the duo on what was next.
”21 Jump Street” sequel
“Firstly, would they do it? “Well, certainly. It’s just a matter of the, you know… how many people go to see the movie in the first place, so we’re encouraging everyone to see it multiple times. If they want a sequel”, says Lord, adding “And you know, we have had some preliminary discussions about where the story might go next and what kind of things might be funny and what things might be unexplored that we haven’t already looked at. So, it’s very early discussions about that.”
Is one of those things possibly including “Jump Street” icon, Booker (the character played by Richard Grieco on the ’80s series)? “I honestly have to say if I have one regret, it is not including Booker in a more substantial part of this film. I’m serious because we had the idea that maybe that all the Jump Streeters, they went on and got different jobs you know.” You will however be able to spot a nice reference to the character in this film, if even briefly, when “the limo pulls up for the school prom, when the doves fly out of the limo, that is Booker Avenue”.
The Lego Movie
Lord and Miller have been working in Sydney on a “Lego” feature film. “We’re actually working on a Lego movie for Warner Brothers and we’re using Animal Logic in Sydney as the animation house, so we’re traveling back and forth to Sydney quite a bit”, says Miller. “It’s mostly animated with a small, live-action component. And it has like… Have you ever seen any of those brick films that are online where people move around those little mini figures in Lego worlds in their basement and make little stop-motion films? It’s kind of like that, but if you gave one of those people a massive budget and a huge sound stage and millions of like… It’s kind of like that.” And can we expect Mr. T, used to great effect in the duo’s previous animated movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”, to be playing a Lego character?
“We really should. We really should”, says Miller. ” “He is awesome. He’s a wonderful man as well.”
The full interview with Miller and Lord will be up shortly…
