As revealed by the now-infamous Sony Pictures hack late last year, the studio was looking to build up, revive or repair its more successful franchises. Rumors included Spider-Man returning to Marvel and who would star in the studio’s female-led Ghostbusters from Paul Feig (Bridesmaids). 21 Jump Street, with its sequel 22 Jump Street, was one of the franchises the studio was aiming to expand – and had some creative ideas for how to do so. With 23 Jump Street already in the works, more films in the franchise were rumored to be in development.
Some months later, Sony officially gave the green light to a Jump Street crossover with alien sci-fi comedy Men in Black, and additionally announced a female-led spinoff. Now, although Sony had set screenwriters to work on the spinoff, the studio has tapped another writing duo for dual-track development of the project.
THR is reporting Lizzie and Wendy Molyneux (Bob’s Burgers) have signed on as a second writing team for Sony’s female-centric Jump Street film. According to THR, the studio liked the Molyneux sisters’ pitch, so they will work on a script for the comedy. They will work separately from the other writing team that Sony originally tapped for the project.
Previously, the studio set Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs (Broad City) to pen the script for the spinoff, which is still in early development. The previous films starred Jonah Hill (This Is the End) and Channing Tatum (Magic Mike XXL) as schoolmates who become friends while in the police academy and must go undercover first in high school, then in college. The two films have become a successful property for Sony, earning praise from critics and fans alike as well as $531 million at the global box office.
The Molyneux sisters have their own critical acclaim under their belts as writers and producers on Fox’s fan-favorite animated comedy Bob’s Burgers. Their brand of offbeat humor seems to be in line with what Sony was looking for in its other writing team of Aniello and Downs. Though it’s likely both scripts will follow a pair of policewomen who go undercover in order to bring down a ring of criminals, each version will lend itself to the writing teams’ specific comedic voices.
However, the Molyneux sisters arguably lean more toward family-friendly comedy with their work on Bob’s Burgers, which could potentially open up the R-rated Jump Street franchise to a larger PG-13 audience. Of course, the raunchy comedy of Jump Street has become integral to the rebooted franchise and it will, most likely, be included in the female-led spinoff.
That being said, this Jump Street film is still in very early development and it remains to be seen whether Sony ends up choosing the script from the Molyneux sisters or Aniello and Downs – or if the studio goes in an entirely different direction. We won’t know what to expect from the female-centric Jump Street until further down the line.
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Stay tuned to Screen Rant for information on all future Jump Street projects as it becomes available.
