Channing Tatum Says 23 Jump Street Has ‘The Best Script’ And Still Wants To Make It

Back in 2014, a hacker group known as Guardians of Peace leaked confidential information from various resources within Sony Pictures. Along with personal information about Sony employees and their families, emails between employees, information about executive salaries at the company, and copies of then-unreleased Sony films, the leak also included plans for future Sony films that were in development at the time. One of those movies was “23 Jump Street.”

Before the leak, official entertainment news reports had already revealed development of “23 Jump Street,” which would have brought back “22 Jump Street” co-writer Rodney Rothman (who went on to co-write and direct “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”) to script the sequel and “The Muppets” director James Bobin behind the camera. Lord & Miller would still produce, after directing the first two movies in the franchise. 

But it wasn’t until the hack that we learned that “23 Jump Street” was actually being developed as a crossover with the “Men in Black” franchise. Titled “MiB 23,” the movie would somehow bring Schmidt and Jenko into the secret government organization tasked with keeping Earth safe from the scum of the universe. This wasn’t just a pipe dream; there were actual plans in the works to make “MiB 23” happen. 

At the time, it wasn’t clear if the hope was to bring “Men in Black” stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones into the sequel, or if it would merely bring the “Jump Street” characters into the sci-fi universe. But thanks to Channing Tatum, we now know that the script was something special.