Columbia Pictures (which is owned by Sony Pictures) President Doug Belgrad recently said what the future might hold for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but he also provided some updates on the studio's other major projects. To begin, you may want to break out your favorite jungle-themed board game because the studio is considering a Jumanji reboot. Speaking to THR, Belgrad says "We're going to try and re-imagine Jumanji and update it for the present." Translation: the game will now end when someone lands on the final space and screams "Jumanji!" at their iPad. I'm not exactly sure how one re-imagines the strikingly simple premise of Jumanji. You play a board game, bad things happen. It's like the Final Destination of family fun.Hit the jump for what Sony has planned for sequels to Men in Black 3 and 21 Jump Street.
Unsurprisingly, Sony hopes they can keep the Men in Black franchise going for as long as possible. Although Men in Black 3 gives them a nice opening for a reboot (set the new movies in the 1960s/70s with Josh Brolin and Alice Eve as the protagonists), that model wouldn't include Will Smith. However, Belgrad doesn't make any mention of Smith when speaking to THR about the franchise's future:
We're very pleased with the financial performance of Men in Black 3, and we believe it is an ongoing franchise. We're going to do [another one], but we don't have clarity yet on how it should be done.
How it should be done: Make sure the script is finished before you start shooting.
Finally, Belgrad says that with the sequel to 21 Jump Street, "we plan to start shooting in the fall." If so, that's a remarkably fast turnaround. It's possible that the players could reshuffle their schedules, but it would make for a tight shooting on 21 Jump Street 2. Channing Tatum is already set to lead the big action flick White House Down and Jonah Hill is co-starring in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street. Both movies are due to begin filming next month. Tatum's also got a slew of other films lined-up, but it's possible he could re-shuffle his schedule. As for directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, while they're not officially on board to return, The Playlist points out that the duo isn't completely bogged down with LEGO: The Piece of Resistance just yet. Speaking to The Playlist, Miller said:
"The plan is that after the summer, once we've got the story more locked and the designs more complete, then the crew that's here in Santa Monica moves to Australia and we stay behind and hopefully we will have enough bandwidth to prep a live action movie while spending a lot of time, everyday, noodling…"
However, getting the sequel to 21 Jump Street in front of cameras in the next several months seems incredibly rushed, and my hope is that Belgrad misspoke and meant next fall. 21 Jump Street is one of my favorite movies this year, and while I'd be happy to see a sequel, I'd rather see it done well than done fast.
