About a year ago we heard that Jonah Hill might be anchoring a movie based on the show 21 Jump Street, aka Johnny Depp’s true doorway into pop culture. It’s been a while since we heard anything, but the movie apparently isn’t dead. It’s just percolating into concentrated action/comedy form. Hill talked to Complex magazine about what he wants out of the project.
Hill says “[Sony execs said] they were gonna let me make my kind of movie—an
R-rated, insane, Bad-Boys-meets-John Hughes-type movie—and I told them
the second they don’t, I’m not gonna be involved anymore.” Elaborating a bit, he offers, “We’re not even spoofing the movie. [the show?] It’s not strictly comedic, either. We’re doing a full-on action movie, blowing shit up.”
The show, one of Fox’s early hits, was kind of a perv’s dream, as it followed a couple of dreamily boyish undercover cops as they investigated crimes among high school kids. It was the show that really helped Peter DeLuise capitalize on his momentum from Solarbabies to become a matinee idol. Yeah, there was a girl, too.
The rest of Hill’s interview is a fun read, too, as he talks about how being famous blows and paints the whole Apatow crew as the anti-celebrities of the current Hollywood landscape. Which is refreshing.