Men in Black

It was over a year ago that the massive Sony hack revealed plans for a Jump Street-Men in Black crossover movie, and while it wasn’t entirely clear, we sort of assumed this would happen in 23 Jump Street. Interesting? Sure. Exciting? Well, maybe. With Phil Lord and Chris Miller busy prepping the young Han Solo movie, we’ve retained some healthy skepticism about this wacky crossover plan. But it looks like Sony has found a director to renew our optimism.

Late in 2014, Sony announced that they’d be mounting a crossover film uniting the diegetic universes of their flagship properties 21 Jump Street and Men In Black. It’s impossible to ignore the feeling that the aging properties are responding to contemporary trends in an effort to stay vital and profitable...

Themed entertainment is a like a shark or a relationship – it has to keep moving forward or it has to die. Today, September 8, 2015, marks the day that Universal officially leaves its past behind. Disaster!: A Major Motion Picture Ride Starring You, is closing to make way for a Fast and Furious themed ride. It’s closure marks the definitive end of the park’s original intentions, for better and for worse.

For a while now, we’ve been hearing about this proposed Men in Black/Jump Street crossover movie. And just yesterday it was reported that Sony wants to make a female-driven Jump Street as well, utilizing a pair of writers from the brilliant and hilarious Broad City. Development on both of these ambitious projects has now been confirmed, so get ready to see Jump Street expand its universe in ways we never imagined.

We mostly assumed that a ‘23 Jump Street’ movie would never happen. Where could you possibly go after the lunacy of the ‘22 Jump Street’ end credits that joked at the idea of horrible sequels up until ‘43 Jump Street’ (subtitled “Mariachi School”). Then came reports late last year of an idea so insane that it might actually work: crossing over ‘23 Jump Street’ and ‘Men in Black’. It was so insane, in fact, that a lot of people thought it wasn’t real. But, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller promise that it’s very real and that they’re currently developing the project at Sony.

‘23 Jump Street’ is a sequel that is surely happening, this despite all the many hilarious sequel jokes during the ‘22 Jump Street’ end credits. The franchise is just too popular to let die. But, how exactly would you sequelize ‘22 Jump Street’, which did a pretty effective job of sending up sequel cliches? Well, you send Jenko and Schmidt to the Men in Black program, of course.

Here come the 'Men in Black...4'! That's right -- as if you weren't expecting it -- a fourth installment of the alien police franchise is coming our way, and if you were thinking this might fizzle out, we've learned that Sony has hired a new writer for the project. So, yeah, it's official.

There are few things that can kill a franchise, even audience apathy. And so even if a film has a famously troubled production history and is coming ten years after the last film, if it's a franchise there must be some way to keep making sequels even if none of the stars return. And though 'Men in Black III' may be Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones's last time in the 'Black' universe Barry Sonnenffel