EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures and Original Film have started forward motion on 23 Jump Street. They’ve set Rodney Rothman to write the script. Rothman was one of the writers who scripted 22 Jump Street for Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. The big question is whether Phil Lord and Christopher Miller will be back to direct the third film. I can report that they are overseeing the script with Rothman as producers on the third film with Neal Moritz, Hill and Tatum. The directing job is theirs if they want it, but insiders said they haven’t committed to direct at this point.

Sony Discussed Possibility of '21 Jump Street' and 'Men in Black' Crossover Movie

The future of Sony’s 21 Jump Street franchise may be going in a very different direction from the first two movies, according to emails leaked as part of last week’s hacking of Sony Enterprises. Did anyone imagine that Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum could be facing off against aliens in the third installment?

Emails from Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal released as part of the leak discuss the possibility of merging the successful comedy franchise with the studio’s Men in Black franchise, last seen in 2012’s Men in Black 3. The Wall Street Journal quotes an email from Hill to Pascal calling the idea “clean and rad and powerful,” although Columbia Pictures production president Hannah Minghella points out that “we don’t have a script yet so we’ll be greenlighting the movie off the concept and the talent involved.”

That talent would include Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who directed both 2012’s 21 Jump Street and this year’s follow-up, 22 Jump Street and would act as producers on this project should it move forward. According to the emails, neither Will Smith nor Tommy Lee Jones, co-leads of the Men in Black movies to date, would be involved.

The crossover is an idea that has been considered, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter, but the project has not been greenlighted.

Should the crossover go ahead, it would not only represent an unexpected turn toward genre for the Jump Street series (although, really, how much fun could be had by turning that franchise into a modern-day Abbott and Costello Meet …?), but also the laying of the groundwork for a shared movie universe for the studio, a la the successful Marvel Studios model.

While Sony is working to expand its Spider-Man license into a multi-series franchise, this secondary crossover might be considered insurance should the studio ever lose the web-slinger back to Marvel. (It’s worth noting that, technically, Men in Black is also a Marvel property, having been created and published by Malibu Studios, which was purchased by Marvel in the mid-’90s.)

22 Jump Street was a successful and self-deprecating sequel to a film that no one expected to be good in the first place. Yet the chemistry between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, coupled with its tongue-in-cheek humor, have made this an unlikely hit franchise. Last year, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller drove straight into the meta wormhole with an end credits sequence that detailed a slate of ridiculous sequels. Now, it turns out that wasn’t just a sight gag.

“We’ve found a way that we love that makes those imagined sequels canonical and yet does something that we haven’t told you about yet,” Lord explained at a WonderCon panel for their new Fox show The Last Man on Earth. “The sequels are canon.”

This seems to jive with what Lord told The New York Times last month: “Rodney Rothman is off writing a script. He had a really outrageous idea for what to do, and how we could take our scorched-earth sequel policy from the end of ’22 Jump Street’ and do something that hadn’t been explored in those 22 sequels and simultaneously tell the next chapter in the story.”

Who knows what’s up their sleeves, but there’s little room for skepticism. After all, these are the same guys who turned a box of Legos into a blockbuster. Regardless, here’s hoping we get to see those Jump Street action figures in real life and that maybe, just maybe, there’s still a possibility of 2121 Jump Street.

Sony Pictures will continue to grow its popular “Jump Street” universe, commissioning dual development of both a female-driven spinoff and a franchise crossover with “Men in Black” that was originally outlined in its leaked emails, TheWrap has learned.

“Broad City” writers Lucia Aniello and Paul Downs have been hired to write the female-driven spinoff, which will feature the same comedic tone as “21 Jump Street” and its even more successful sequel.

“21 Jump Street” took aim at reboots, while “22 Jump Street” targeted sequels, so it makes sense that the next “Jump Street” movie will send-up the current trend of Shared Movie Universes by having Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum enter the “Men in Black” universe and investigate aliens.

Producer Neal Moritz and his Original Films will steer dual development of the “Jump Street” extensions along with Hill, Tatum and Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who directed the first two films.

The “Jump Street” franchise has been a bright spot for Sony, which has seen solid returns from the series. The first “Jump Street” movie grossed just over $200 million worldwide but the sequel took the franchise to the next level, grossing $331 million worldwide — an exceptional haul for an R-rated action-comedy.

Dakota Johnson actually played one of the young officers in “21 Jump Street” before she starred in “Fifty Shades of Grey,” so it’s possible she could return to anchor the female-driven spinoff. Aniello and Downs have helped “Broad City” become a breakout hit on Comedy Central, and it’s also possible that Sony could recruit talent from that network, such as Amy Schumer, Jessica Williams and “Broad City” stars Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson.

As for the “Men in Black” crossover, which writer-producer-star Hill was especially excited about in the leaked Sony emails, it remains unclear whether Will Smith would be involved, let alone Tommy Lee Jones or Josh Brolin.

“Men in Black 3” had the franchise’s highest global haul, with $624 million worldwide, though it also had the lowest domestic gross in the series, with only $179 million in the U.S. That indicates that while international interest has never been higher, American audiences are growing weary of “MIB.” “Jump Street,” on the other hand, has had higher domestic grosses than foreign grosses, so a combination of the two franchises may prove to be more beneficial to Sony at the worldwide box office.

With female-driven movies continuing to strike gold at the box office, Sony has invested more resources in catering to female audiences, including casting Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon in its upcoming “Ghostbusters” reboot.

Aniello and Downs are represented by UTA and 3 Arts Entertainment, and their hiring was first reported by the Tracking Board.