Brooke Bunny
Phil Lord and Chris Miller will reprise their shared directing roles on the “21 Jump Street” sequel, while Ice Cube will reprise his role as Captain Harris, according to the film’s producer.
Neal Moritz tells Collider that the sequel, due Summer 2014, will reunite much of the original and crew kicking off with – well, duh! – Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill’s Jenko and Schmidt, respectively.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of people back from the previous film but we’re going to add quite a few people”, says the producer. “It’s been nice, people like the movie so much that there’s been a number of people who have come forward and said, ‘I’d like to be in that movie’ or ‘I’d like to do a cameo in that movie’ or something like that.”
“[Lord and Miller] are attached to direct the movie, we’re actively developing the script with them”, Moritz says of the Sony sequel. “Right now, we got a first draft that we’re pleased and the second draft is coming along. We’re supposed to start shooting in late September, early October.”
A Summer release for the sequel would indicate this one will be significantly bigger in budget – stemming from the success of the original, no doubt – than the 2011 original. Not that that means it’ll be wall-to-wall action, as Moritz states.
“We will have more money but I don’t think people will come into 21 Jump Street to see the action. I think the action needs to be good and will be good but it’s not like Fast and the Furious – when they come to see Fast and the Furious they’re expecting big action. What they’re expecting here is good, funny movie with a great combination of Channing and Jonah, with a lot of heart. And that’s what we hope to deliver – but there will be action as well.”
At the end of the first film, Cube’s character assigned undercover cops Jenko and Schmidt(Tatum, Hill) a college job – – and that’s exactly where the sequel will go.
“It leads off where we ended the last film and our guys are going to college. Now, I can’t tell you more than that because there’s some fun to be had in what college they’re going to and what’s going to happen. It really just starts there.”
Again, Moritz stresses the ‘heart’ factor of these films, suggesting there’ll be some ‘nice’ moments between our mismatched cop buddies again this time around.
“The relationship developed quite a bit in the first movie and now we’re kind of in the marriage phase between the two guys. Now they’re actual partners, so they’re married – what happens once marriage starts? In certain ways, it’s kind of like the Seven Year Itch of police buddy comedies. What worked so well about the first one was – it was funny, yes, there was good action, yes – but really what worked more than anything was that there was great heart. That’s the thing we’ve been working really hard on, just try and make sure that the heart of the first one is there for the second one.”
I think it’s safe to say Johnny Depp won’t be returning for this one, but what about Dustin Nguyen or Richard Grieco!?
