There’s an age-old way to pitch a movie in Hollywood–it’s called the “meets.” Director Matt Reeves, for instance, just signed on to make a thriller described as ‘Heat’ Meets ‘Dog Day Afternoon’. The Atlantic once described the The Walking Dead as Clint Eastwood Meets ‘Gone With the Wind.” But those descriptions are just figurative–meant to help you envision the project. The Sony hack reveals that Sony is trying to make the “meets” literal–mashing up the Jump Street and Men in Black franchises. (Hoping to add a little “Jump” to the tired Men In Black is only natural.)
Jonah Hill allegedly sent an email saying ‘jump street merging with mib i think that’s clean and rad and powerful.’ Steven Spielberg will have to agree–the MiB franchise is his. (We’d like to see Saving Private Ryan Meets E.T.–in case he’s taking requests.) It’s the age of the mashup. Superheroes fly out of one movie right into the next. (Though they never leave their particular cinematic universes–that’s a cardinal sin!) But even in the age of the mashup, this is like the Simpsons barging right into Family Guy. Wait…
