Last summer, Sony announced they were preparing a 21 Jump Street sequel.  Jonah Hill followed up to say he was working on the script with Michael Bacall and expected to start filming in September 2013.  It looks like all is going according to plan, as Sony announced 21 Jump Street 2 as part of their 2014 slate at CinemaCon.  21 Jump Street was too funny to leave alone and lends itself to a case-of-the-week comedy franchise, so I look forward to another adventure.  (21 Jump Street: The College Years?)

Hill and Channing Tatum are expected to reprise their starring roles.  Dave Franco says that despite plot logistics, he heard there is a place for him in the sequel.  Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are currently hard at work on the Lego movie, but it sounds like there will be room in their schedule to return to Jump Street.

Poor Dave Franco. The charming younger brother of James just can’t seem to catch a break in films. In Fright Night and 21 Jump Street, he’s the “other guy” – all the ladies choosing a different suitor, leaving ol’ Franco to either a.) get eaten by a vampire Colin Farrell or b.) go to prison. Not the greatest of options. I wish I could say things turn out differently for Franco in this week’s zombie rom-com Warm Bodies – but by the ten-minute mark, the poor kid’s zombie food and then somehow things get more tragic for his character. It’s a testament that even in a film as a light-hearted as Warm Bodies, Dave Franco still gets the short stick.

In the following interview with Franco, he discusses his character’s tragic arc, the plight of never getting the girl and whether or not he’ll be back for the 21 Jump Street sequel. For the full interview, hit the jump.

21 Jump Street was one of the biggest surprises of 2012 both critically and commercially – so it should come as no surprise that a sequel has been in the works for awhile now (our previous coverage can be found here  and here).  At the press junket for Warm Bodies, I had the opportunity to speak briefly with co-star Dave Franco about coping with the film’s surprising popularity and his involvement in the inevitable sequel.  At the end of the film, Franco’s character Eric was in precarious waters having been caught and presumably sent away to prison — but Franco said that he’ll still have a presence in the upcoming sequel.  Per Franco:

“I’ve heard little things… They claim I’ll be around.  Who knows how much they can use me because I’m in jail at this point but I’m hoping they can find a creative way to have me be a pivotal part of the story.”

For Franco’s full thoughts on 21 Jump Street, hit the jump.  Look for the full interview soon.

Opening tomorrow is director Akiva Schaffer’s (Hot Rod) sci-fi comedy The Watch (previously titled Neighborhood Watch).  The film stars Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Ben Stiller and Richard Ayoade as a group of neighbors who form a local neighborhood watch group and end up stumbling onto an alien plot to destroy the world.  The film also stars Billy Crudup, Will Forte, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Nicholas Braun.  For more on the film, here’s the latest trailer, a red band trailer, an outtake reel, my video interview with Schaffer, and all our previous coverage.

The other day I got to speak with Stiller, Vaughn, Hill and Ayoade.  We talked about the filthy dialogue, what was in the script versus improv, what scene had the most takes, and who broke the most during filming.  In addition, at the end of the interview I got updates on the 21 Jump Street sequel, Zoolander 2, The Internship and The Double.  Hit the jump to watch.