Phil Lord & Chris Miller back to direct '21 Jump Street' sequel

When 21 Jump Street brought in over $200M and quieted those (like yours truly) who thought it was a concept that could never work, Sony began putting together a sequel pretty quickly.  Michael Bacall was rehired to begin penning the screenplay, and the studio took the time at CinemaCon recently to set summer 2014 as a timeframe. While previous directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord were expected to return, it wasn't exactly a sure thing. At least not until today.

Producer Neal Moritz revealed to Collider that Miller and Lord would indeed be back to direct, and that filming would commence this fall after the duo are all done with The Lego Movie. He also confirmed that not only would Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum be back, but that we can expect more of Ice Cube as Captain Dickson.

Moritz: “[Lord and Miller] are attached to direct the movie, we’re actively developing the script with them.  Right now, we got a first draft that we’re pleased and the second draft is coming along.  We’re supposed to start shooting in late September, early October.”

As expected, the story will see Schmidtz and Janko headed off to college for some fratboy hijinks...

Moritz: “It leads off where we ended the last film and our guys are going to college.  Now, I can’t tell you more than that because there’s some fun to be had in what college they’re going to and what’s going to happen.  It really just starts there.”

He went on to reveal the partnership between the two friends would be going through some changes as they settle in to being legit cops...

Moritz: "The relationship developed quite a bit in the first movie and now we’re kind of in the marriage phase between the two guys.  Now they’re actual partners, so they’re married – what happens once marriage starts? In certain ways, it’s kind of like 'The Seven Year Itch' of police buddy comedies."