“Ghostbuster” started the trend of changing the gender of main characters in the remake of the movie, resulting in the characters portrayed by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis in the original 1984 move being taken over by four actresses in the 2016 sequel. The same is being done in the TV spinoff of the 2014 action comedy film “22 Jump Street” which starred Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as cops.
The roots of “22 Jump Street” is a TV series in the 1980s “21 Jump Street” which was made into a movie in 2012 and a sequel in 2014 with a slight change in the address to 22 from 21. Splitsider reports that the TV version of “22 Jump Street” would have female cops instead.
Female-Driven TV Series
But the website notes that “22 Jump Street” – now a female-driven series – would be written and directed by a man. Rodney Rothman was tapped to take over the direction and script from the first version of the script written by Lucia Aniello and Paul Downs in April 2015 and revised by Lizzie and Wendy Molyneux after a few months.
Slashfilm reports that details of the project by Sony are under wraps. However, according to trade notes, there would be male characters in the TV spinoff of “22 Jump Street” although it is unclear at this point if the male characters would be lead or support roles.
Rothman’s Background
Rodney Rothman, the new writer and director of “22 Jump Street” TV spinoff, was the scriptwriter of “Grudge Street.” He was also a writer for “The Late Show” when it was hosted by David Letterman, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The movie version of “21 Jump Street,” shown in 2012, earned for Sony $201 million although it was produced at $42 million. The movie sequel in 2014, “22 Jump Street,” grossed $331 million, while Sony spent $50 million to produce the film.