Director Talks Men in Black / 21 Jump Street Crossover MIB 23

Sony Pictures made big headlines last year at the CinemaCon event where they announced plans for a Men in Black and 21 Jump Street crossover title. Going by the alias MIB 23, James Bobin was said to be given the directorial duties with the screenplay to be written by 22 Jump Street scribe Rodney Rothman.

Yet that news went quiet following comments from Jonah Hill. The actor explained how he believed such a concept would never come to fruition. Essentially sucking the life out of the film altogether. But then we have the director of all three Men in Black movies, Barry Sonnenfeld, who opened up to Digital Spy this week over the installment and offered an insight into where it all sits right now.

Too Many Cooks In This Kitchen: Sonnenfeld

Men in Black 21 Jump Street Crossover

Both falling under the Columbia Pictures/Sony banner, Sonnenfeld believed that the conflicting interests would be too much of an impairment to go ahead. Yet he does hold out hope if they were to recast the agents.

"I wish there were a fourth film," admits the filmmaker. "I don't think Will Smith nor I would be involved. But I love the franchise, because I developed it and created it. But I think the problem with making a fourth film, for a while they were talking about combining 21 Jump Street and Men in Black, (is) there are too many expensive players in the mix. There's Steven Spielberg, there's other producers, and I think the way to do it is to have new agents or something like that. Not have me, not have Will, not have Tommy (Lee Jones). Just have other adventures. I wish they would do it, I don't know if they will."

Parody Within A Parody For Jonah and Friends

Men in Black 21 Jump Street Crossover Parody

Amid discussions that a new Men in Black franchise could emerge with an all-female cast from Laurie MacDonald, that fell through after the studio made the push for MIB 23. To complicate matters further, Jonah Hill argues that the crossover theory will have the comedy movies suffering from all the ailments that they were parodying in the first place.

"I had the idea. But I doubt that movie will get made. It's too complicated," said the 33-year old. "They're trying to make all the deals, but it's kind of impossible with all the Men in Black stuff. The Jump Street films were so fun to make and the whole joke of them was they were making fun of remakes and sequels and reboots and then now it's become a giant sequel, reboot. It's almost become what we were making fun of and it's hard to maintain that joke when it's so high stakes. I love Channing and I love (directors) Phil Lord and Chris Miller and I love making those movies, they're a lot of fun. So I hope it works out."

Source: Digital Spy, MovieWeb

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