Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's unrealized projects
The following is a list of unproduced Phil Lord and Christopher Miller projects in roughly chronological order. During their career, film-making duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under their direction. Some of these projects are officially cancelled or fell in development hell.
2010s
The Reunion
In 2013, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were attached to The Reunion, a comedy about a high school reunion.[1] The film was set-up at Sony Pictures and was to be produced by Lord, Miller (under their Lord Miller banner), Jonathan Kadin, and Hannah Minghella, and written and directed solely by Miller.[2] In 2014, Lord and Miller were still optimistic in making The Reunion while promoting The Lego Movie.[3]
Untitled Ghostbusters film
In April 2014, Sony pursued a short list of potential directors for Ghostbusters 3, including Phil Lord and Chris Miller, but they passed on the project.[4]
The Greatest American Hero reboot
In August 2014, Lord and Miller were attached to reboot the 1981 TV series The Greatest American Hero for Fox. They were to executive produce the series, with 22 Jump Street co-writer Rodney Rothman writing the pilot and also executive producing.[5] By 2017, Lord, Miller, and Rothman were out as 20th Century Fox Television were interested in developing a female-led reboot from Fresh Off the Boat creator Nahnatchka Khan and would instead air on ABC.[6] However, ABC decided to not pick up the show in 2018.[7]
23 Jump Street/MIB 23
On September 10, 2014, 23 Jump Street was confirmed.[8] Channing Tatum had yet to sign on to the project, stating, "I don't know if that joke works three times, so we'll see."[9] On August 7, 2015, it was revealed that Lord and Miller would not direct the film, but instead write and produce. A first draft of the film's script has been completed.[10] On December 10, 2014, it was revealed that Sony was planning a crossover between Men in Black and Jump Street. The news was leaked after Sony's system was hacked[11] and then confirmed by the directors of the films, Lord and Miller, during an interview about it.[12][13] James Bobin was announced as the director in March 2016.[14][15] The title of the crossover was later revealed as MIB 23, and it was revealed that the crossover would replace a 23 Jump Street film. However, the project was canceled in January 2019. Shortly after, Phil Lord stated that, despite MIB 23 not happening, a third sequel entitled 24 Jump Street was in development.[16]
Female-driven 21 Jump Street
In early 2015, a female-driven 21 Jump Street film was rumored to also be in the works. In December 2016, Rodney Rothman was confirmed to direct the film.[17][18] In December 2018, Tiffany Haddish was confirmed to lead the film and Awkwafina is in talks.[19]
The Flash
By April 2015, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were writing a story treatment for The Flash film for the DC Extended Universe.[20] In October 2015, Seth Grahame-Smith was in negotiations to direct and write the script, based on the treatment by Lord and Miller.[21] He departed the project due to creative differences in April 2016.[22]
Solo: A Star Wars Story
In January 2017, Lord and Miller began directing the then-untitled film, a standalone Star Wars movie based on the Han Solo character. On June 20, 2017 it was reported that they had been fired from the project by Lucasfilm, after over four-and-a-half months of filming, about three-quarters through principal photography.[23] Lucasfilm announced that "creative differences" were the reason, with Entertainment Weekly reporting that Lord and Miller were going off-script and trying to make the film into more of a comedy. They were unwilling to compromise with Lucasfilm and writer Lawrence Kasdan on the direction of the film, preferring their vision. Two days later, Ron Howard was announced as the replacement, to complete the film and reshoots.[24][25] Lord and Miller received executive-producer credits on Solo: A Star Wars Story.[26]
In November 2017, Lord and Miller commented on their departure from Solo: A Star Wars Story. Lord stated "The experience of shooting the movie was wonderful. We had the most incredible cast and crew and collaborators. [...] We're really proud of the work we did on the movie and we wish everybody the best." Miller added "As Phil said, we had such a great relationship with cast and crew, we were really rooting for them. After we took a much-needed vacation, we got back into it and now we're writing and producing a sequel to The Lego Movie and producing a Miles Morales animated Spider-Man."[27]
America: The Motion Picture
In March 2017, they were producing an R-rated animated Netflix original film called America: The Motion Picture alongside Will Allegra, Matt Thompson, Adam Reed, Channing Tatum, Reid Carolin and Peter Kiernan from a screenplay by David Callaham and directed by Thompson.[28][29]
References
- "Phil Lord And Chris Miller Will Make 'The Reunion' For Sony". We Got This Covered. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- Dave McNary (June 27, 2013). "'21 Jump Street' Directors, Sony Reunite on New Comedy (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- Mike Sampson (February 5, 2014). "Block Party: Talking 'The LEGO Movie' With Writer/Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller". Screen Crush. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- Siegel, Tatiana; Kit, Borys (April 8, 2014). "Lord And Miller Off Ghostbusters 3?". Empire Online. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
- Andreeva, Nellie. "'Greatest American Hero' Remake: Fox To Develop Pilot With Phil Lord & Chris Miller". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 27 February 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
- Nellie Andreeva. "'The Greatest American Hero' Reboot With Female Lead Gets Big ABC Commitment". Deadline. Archived from the original on 9 September 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
- Goldberg, Lesley (May 11, 2018). "The 5 Most Surprising Pilot Passes This Season". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
- Aga, Chris (September 10, 2014). "'23 Jump Street' in the Works; No Director(s) Attached Yet". ScreenRant.
- Lee, Ashley (October 17, 2014). "Channing Tatum Debates '23 Jump Street': "I Don't Know If That Joke Works Three Times"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
- Wakeman, Gregory (August 7, 2015). "The 21 Jump Street Franchise Needs To Find Someone New To Take Over". Cinemablend. Retrieved August 8, 2015.
- FRITZ, BEN (December 10, 2014). "Sony Plans 'Men in Black' – 'Jump Street' Crossover". WSJ. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
- Converse, Simon; Eisenberg, Eric (January 14, 2015). "M.I.B./Jump Street crossover unofficially confirmed". Cinemablend. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
- Alexander, Julia (March 4, 2016). "Report: 23 Jump Street will be a crossover with Men in Black". Polygon.
- "That 21 Jump Street-Men In Black Crossover Is Actually Happening". Gizmodo.
- Franich, Darren (April 13, 2016). "Sony confirms Charlie's Angels reboot, Jump Street-Men in Black crossover". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 13, 2016.
- Topel, Fred (23 January 2019). "Franchise Fred News: 24 Jump Street Is Being Developed". We Live Entertainment. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
- "Female-Driven 21 Jump Street Spinoff Rumored to be in the Works". comingsoon.net.
- "Rodney Rothman To Direct Female Driven Jump Street Spinoff". Deadline Hollywood.
- Sneider, Jeff (5 December 2018). "Exclusive: Tiffany Haddish in Talks to Star in New 'Jump Street' Movie". Collider. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
- Busch, Anita (April 9, 2015). "'The Flash' Movie: 'Lego' Guys Phil Lord & Christopher Miller Building Warner Bros Pic". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 22, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
- Kit, Borys (October 5, 2015). "'The Flash' Movie Finds its Director (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 5, 2015. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
- Kit, Borys (April 29, 2016). "The 'Flash' Movie Loses Its Director (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
- Kit, Borys (June 22, 2017). "Ron Howard Steps in to Direct Han Solo Movie (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
- Stedman, Alex. "'Star Wars' Han Solo Film Loses Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller". Variety. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
- "How the Han Solo film broke apart — with Ron Howard picking up the pieces". Entertainment Weekly. June 22, 2017. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
- Roettgers, Janko (March 23, 2018). "'Solo: A Star Wars Story': Phil Lord and Chris Miller Reveal Their Credit". Variety. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- "Phil Lord and Chris Miller Talk About Their Han Solo Firing". ComingSoon.net. November 20, 2017. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
- Fleming Jr., Mike (March 3, 2017). "Netflix Sets First Animated Film 'America'; Channing Tatum Voicing George Washington". Deadline. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
- "Netflix's first animated film will star Channing Tatum as George Washington". The Verge. March 31, 2017. Retrieved April 3, 2017.