22 Jump Street famously concludes with a montage of clips from fake sequels to the movie - poking fun at the very concept of a Jump Street TV show-turned movie franchise, much in the same way that 22 Jump Street riffs on its own existence. That hasn't prevented Sony from attempting to keep the Jump Street series going in real-life all the same; in fact, the studio is now working on a pair of Jump Street film spinoffs, in the forms of a crossover with the Men in Black franchise (dubbed MIB 23) and a film about a pair of undercover female police officers who are connected to the Jump Street program in some way.
The Jump Street female spinoff (for lack of a better way to describe the project) has already gone through two sets of screenwriting duos, in the forms of Lucia Aniello and Paul Downs (Broad City), as well as Lizzie and Wendy Molyneux (Bob's Burgers). Sony has now found another screenwriter to work on the spinoff; one who's not only a veteran of the Jump Street series, but is also now lined up to make their feature-length directorial debut on this particular "extension" of the Jump Street brand.
Deadline is reporting that 22 Jump Street co-writer Rodney Rothman is now working on the script for the Jump Street female spinoff, with the plan being for him to call the the shots on the movie too. Rothman also wrote the most recent script draft for MIB 23 - which, as it currently stands, still has James Bobin (The Muppets, Alice Through the Looking Glass) loosely attached to direct the film, as well as an eye on bringing Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill back to reprise their Jump Street movie roles as Jenko and Schmidt.
Rothman got his start as a writer for the Late Show with David Letterman in the mid-1990s and has since gone on to work on TV shows like Undeclared and the film 22 Jump Street, as well as the Robert De Niro vs. Sylvester Stallone boxing comedy, Grudge Match. As a producer, Rothman has worked on such well-received comedies as Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Five-Year Engagement and most recently the Lonely Island faux-documentary, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (itself, something of a cult critical hit).
Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were considered essential to the creative accomplishments of the first two Jump Street movies, so their lack of involvement on the developing franchise spinoffs (outside of the pair being producers) doesn't exactly inspire confidence in either film. Rothman's overall body of comedy work is solid enough to suggest he may yet do something interesting with the female spinoff as the director. At the same time though, it's disappointing to learn that Sony isn't moving forward with either of the script drafts co-written by women who have demonstrated a knack for crafting comedies driven by female characters.
NEXT: Jonah Hill Doubts MIB 23 Will Happen
We'll bring you more information on all Jump Street-related movie spinoffs as it becomes available.
Source: Deadline