Jonah Hill reworks cult-TV show ‘21 Jump Street’

March 13, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

By Rene Rodriguez

McClatchy Newspapers

MIAMI

The idea of a movie spinoff of “21 Jump Street” — the cult TV series about a group of police officers, led by Johnny Depp, who worked under-cover as high schoolers — had been kicking around Hollywood for nearly five years. The late Stephen J. Cannell, one of the show’s original creators, had contemplated it. Action-picture producer Neal H. Moritz (“Fast Five,” “S.W.A.T.” and “I Am Legend”) had circled it.

But it was Jonah Hill, the star of comedies such as “Superbad” and “Get Him to the Greek,” who finally figured out the best way to transplant the admittedly preposterous premise of the series onto the big screen: Turn it into a flat-out, no-holds-barred comedy with a hard-R rating.

“All I ever saw in this project was an opportunity to make the most fun movie ever,” says Hill, who also co-wrote and executive-produced the film. “I didn’t want to change people’s lives. I just wanted an hour and a half of pure fun. And I think that’s how it turned out.”

“21 Jump Street,” which opens Friday, is a rare breed of Hollywood studio comedy: One in which all the creators — both in front and behind the camera — are in perfect sync chasing after the same loopy vision. Hill and Channing Tatum star as a pair of newly minted police academy grads who are tasked to the Jump Street unit and assigned by their barking-mad captain (Ice Cube) to pose as high school students — and brothers! — to bring down a drug ring.

That simple description does not do proper justice to the insane tone and energy of the movie, which at times reaches the manic intensity of vintage Looney Tunes, but never at the expense of characters or story. As raunchy as the film gets — and you should take that R-rating seriously — “21 Jump Street” works because of the touching, genuinely sweet bond between Hill and Tatum, and also because the movie also has a real narrative spine, exploring how our high school years leave the kinds of marks time can’t erase.

The unlikely combination of utter lunacy and real heart began at the script level, when Hill collaborated with screenwriter Michael Bacall (“Project X,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”) on an original story treatment.

Once the script started making the rounds, it caught the attention of co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who had made their feature film debut with the animated hit “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” but were looking for a change of pace.

But nothing in the movie would have worked if Hill hadn’t found the perfect actor to play his partner. For Tatum (“The Vow,” “The Eagle,” “Fighting”), “21 Jump Street” was an opportunity to hit some notes he hadn’t yet played as an actor.

Despite his lack of experience with the funny stuff, the actor was a natural. In one scene, Hill is trying to talk on the phone while Tatum pelts him with an assortment of rude gestures and objects, including a rather impertinent stuffed giraffe.

“That scene was written as just Jonah talking to a girl on the phone,” Lord says. “We did it in rehearsal a million times. But on the set, we told Channing, ‘At a certain point, come into the room and [mess] with Jonah and do whatever you want.’ So we can’t take credit for the giraffe [acts] or anything else. That’s pure Channing, based on years of being a guy. Are you familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour theory? I’d say Channing has become the world’s expert at messing with your friends and doing gross things to them.”