Channing Tatum praises the Men in Black/Jump Street movie that never happened.. but says it still might

You may recall back in 2016 when the whole Sony leaked emails thing was going on that, while most of it focused on Paul Feige’s Ghostbusters, a fun – if weird – Men in Black/21 Jump Street project was also hitting the headlines (here).

Not only that, but the movie actually went so far into development that it had a title: MiB 23, following 21 and 22 Jumo Street, (here) but, alas, it wasn’t to be.

Originally envisioned as a crossover that would have seen Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum’s Schmidt and Jenko stumbling upon the Men in Black – Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, perhaps? – and would have ended up actually joining the secret organisation that fights aliens.

Funny thing is, we were all excited because at the time Ghost Corp had just been founded (here) and there were loads of exciting Ghostbusters rumours doing the rounds and we were confident that we could have been on the verge of a Men in Black/Ghostbusters crossover potentially happening.

Funny thing, since then, we have had a Men in Black/Ghostbusters board game from IDW (left) that is a lot of silly fun and brings the two franchises together in a way that is crying out for a movie, TV series or, at the very least, a comic book series (it can’t happen because of rights issues, alas).

The movie, MiB 23 even had a director attached in the shape of The Muppets (2013)’s James Bobin. It was an exciting time, I can tell you. But, well, obviously, it never happened… but t seems it’s not just the fans that are sad about this.

In a new interview Channing Tatum was asked about the crossover and told by the interviewer that they really wish it had happened; Tatum’s reply was a heartfelt one: “You’re preaching to the choir, man.

“I still think it could work, I really do. And if Sony would ever really, like, I think do the hard work and figure out the producer problems that are inherent with that film, I think we can still do it. But right now, I don’t know why, they’re just not motivated to do it. It’s a big overhead on that movie, so.”

Not only that, but it seems Tatum has read the script and was very, very impressed, saying it was “by and away the best third sequel to any franchise that I’ve ever read, in my entire life.”

With the Men in Black’s most recent movie, Men in Black International, starring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, being a disaster financially, with fans and critically, it’s unlikely we’ll see MiB 23 happening any time soon… but we will never say never.

Tatum has recently also talked about his X-Men spinoff movie, Gambit, which almost happened (here) but then, well, didn’t. He says that 20th Century Fox weren’t prepared to let him and Carolin direct as they has never directed before and, when the movie got away from him, he was crushed.

“Once Gambit went away, I was so traumatised,” Tatum says, “I shut off my Marvel machine. I haven’t been able to see any of the movies. I loved that character. It was just too sad.”

He’s really not having any luck with the big franchises, is he? Aw well, we’re sure he’ll get his franchise soon enough.

Thoughts? I want to hear them, folks.

Source: Collider