21 Jump Street Finds a Couple Cloudy Directors
As Oscar season quickly approaches the discussion for which films should be nominated continues to top headlines and in relation to the Best Animated Film category, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is definitely at the forefront. With their revolutionary use of combining practical and virtual camera movement during the filming of Cloudy, both Phil Lord and Chris Miller have proven that they’re able to hold their own in a genre dominated by the Pixar powerhouse for years prior. But can they handle a contemporary re imagining of an early 90′s teenage cop drama? Columbia Pictures seems to think so as they are currently in negotiations to direct the 21 Jump Street remake written by Mike Bacall and starring Jonah Hill who will also executive produce. Neal Moritz (Click, Evan Almighty, I am Legend, Made of Honor) and 21 Jump Street series co-creator Stephen J. Cannell will also be producing this “R-rated, insane, Bad-Boys-meets-John Hughes†movie according to Hill who’s always been a huge fan of the series and is making his screenwriting debut. 21 Jump Street was a television series which aired from 1987 to 1991 and followed a young group of undercover cops as they infiltrated high schools to search out troubled teens.
Lord and Miller are relative newcomers to the world of live action but are cited with numerous writing credits on the hit television series How I Met your Mother along with the short lived Clone High which aired on MTV and has become a cult classic since its cancellation in 2003. Both of these young film makers are now making waves in the industry after their 5 years of working on Cloudy has paid off to the tune of over $120 million in domestic box office receipts and a number one spot in the charts during its opening weekend. Miller has also worked on every Shrek film in numerous roles which range from voice acting in Shrek and Shrek Forever After, to writing dialogue for Shrek 2, to directing Shrek the Third and the Puss in Boots spinoff which is set for release in 2011. On the other hand, Lord has focused more on his Television and short film work with his latest being an animated film titled Wood.
Both Lord and Miller are known mostly for their witty use of pop culture references in their dialogue along with their unique “hand made†style of animation where there are no geometrical perfections or straight lines. While their resumes may seem like an odd fit for 21 Jump Street I can’t help but think that they’re affinity for writing clever dialogue in contemporary settings will bode well in Hill’s reboot of the legendary smooth talker Tom Hansen made famous by Johnny Depp. Both of these film makers were able to show their talent for taking an absurd situation and making it resonate in real life themes such as father-son relationships along with an abundance of political satire while working on Cloudy. Also, Lord and Miller have the experience under their belt to manage a group of over 100 animators and their eye for composition and depth of field was some of the best I’ve ever seen in a 3D film. However, translating that into a successful hard-R action movie from a debut actor turned writer could be quite the challenge. Optimistically speaking, the action scenes in Cloudy were reminiscent to an Emmerich disaster film and the dialogue was as smooth and clever as a PG rated Kevin Smith film so perhaps the teaming of Jonah Hill, Phil Lord, and Chris Miller are exactly what we need to bring 21 Jump Street back into the spotlight.
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Author: Matt Peloquin (21 Articles)
Since I was a boy I've been completely obsessed with the world of film. My first viewing of Toy Story led me into the area of animation particularly, but since than I've branched out to become more of a cinephile than just an effects artist. I attended Rochester Institute of Technology for Network Security with a minor in creative writing where I elected to take mostly film related courses. I also attended Gnomon School of Visual Effects where I developed my passion for the illusion of effects in relation to films. Some of my favorite films include Children of Men, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Back to the Future, The Big Lebowski, The Fountain, Pitch Black, The Wackness, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Wizard of Oz, Clerks, The Abyss, and Into the Wild. I am a true fanatic of film and would like to use my involvement in Iconocritic.com to be introduced to others as passionate as I am about my pursuit. To name just a few of the people I've followed throughout my life that I've extracted so much aspired value from would have to be Stan Winston, James Cameron, Darren Aronofsky, Kevin Smith, Charlie Kaufmann, John Lasseter, and Joel and Ethan Coen because each and every one of them worked their way from the bottom to the top without relying on their family inherited connections to the industry; something I greatly admire.
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