Sony Chief Reveals Plans For New Men In Black, 21 Jump Street And Jumanji Installments

At same time as discussing issues with The Amazing Spider-Man, and obstacles on the sequel's path to production, Sony Columbia head Douglas Belgrad has been talking up the studio's plans for some new sequels and a remake.

Men In Black 3 turned out to be quite the hit, so a fourth chapter was seeming pretty much inevitable. And so it is, though Beglrad says:

we don't have clarity yet on how it should be done.

Which I'd expect refers specifically to how they're going to handle K, now that they have two of him. Tommy Lee Jones is probably quite keen to not come back again, so it's likely a question of how to work Josh Brolin into the story, or what to to do if they write K out entirely.

The other sequel is in a much more advanced state. Belgrad says that Columbia 'plan to start shooting in the fall' on the sequel to 21 Jump Street.

Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are also working on the Lego movie but in a way that can mesh with a live action shoot ' think of how Tim Burton was working on Frankenweenie and Dark Shadows at once for a clear example. The slightly bigger problem will be in getting Channing Tatum's schedule clear enough. He's a very busy boy.

Not everything Sony make will be a sequel. No, there's going to be some 'remaining' done too. Belgrad says:

We're going to try and reimagine Jumanji and update it for the present.

Now, I've read this whole interview and gone back to pick it for quotes and the only film with an 'original' story that gets mentioned at all is Hotel Transylvania, even though that reworks classic horror tropes and characters. Everything else is a follow-up, do-over or adaptation.

And still, writers break their ways in to the industry by writing original scripts. Original scripts that often don't get made, but do at least get the writers onto the map and working on sequel, adaptation and remake assignments.

One final note: there was no mention of the next Ghostbusters. Did The Hollywood Reporter not ask? Or did Belgrad ask for those comments to go off the record?