Will Johnny Depp Agree to a Role in Jonah Hill's New '21 Jump Street' Remake?

By Christine Fenno Posted Jan 16th 2011 01:07PM

'Get Him the Greek' star Jonah Hill wants Johnny Depp to get back to his roots.

Depp rocketed to fame in the late-'80s on '21 Jump Street,' one of the original series to air on Fox during the years when the network was just starting out. Now that Hill has written a new take on the hit show about cops working undercover in a high school, he's been issuing a 'Depp Wanted' casting call to bring the A-list star on board.

Not that Depp, 47, will recognize much about the new film version -- according to 27-year-old Hill, "It's an entirely new imagination of what '21 Jump Street' is." He added, when describing his script to MTV News recently, "We're not doing a spoof whatsoever."

When asked for an update at Friday's Critics' Choice Awards, Hill confirmed that filming will begin April 11 in the Big Easy. "I'm excited. I've never been to New Orleans before." But has Depp's participation been locked up?

Hill said late last year, "Hopefully, he does it...It would be awesome if he did," and in a separate interview, Depp soon followed up by saying, "It could be very funny...I'm in, I'm in."

But on Friday, Hill wasn't saying whether Depp's enthusiasm about a cameo had actually led to a deal.

Channing Tatum is confirmed to co-star, yet Hill was coy about naming any other names: "It was really important to get the main two characters together, and then now we gotta fill out the rest of the cast," he told MTV.

Back in 2009, Hill took a crack at describing his remake, expected to be a rated-R comedy, saying, "What happens is, they get caught up in the high school-ness as opposed to the police work....And whenever they get too caught up in the high school drama, police work comes in. And whenever they get too caught up in the police work, high school drama comes in."

Tags: 21 jump street, johnny depp, jonah hill

Comments

(7)

Sunday 16 January

By New York

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I would love to see Johnny Depp in a grown up movie. Enough with the childish films & costumes. His beautiful face as a leading man is what I want to see.

By yappy1953

He has been in many serious role movies, but you didn't buy tickets obviously. Rent Chocolat.

By angela

Why don't you watch Public Enemies? It came out in 2009. Are people's attention span that short?

By Lisa

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Jesus...stop with the remakes already! Do something original! Stop with all the pre-franchised BS!

By usthatswho1

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I agree! Something of substance AND no extreme make-up for us female viewers would be nice as well...

By tool3line2

He despised 23 Jump Street so would be amazed if he did a role.

Johnny Depp already said he'd love to do a cameo in a few recent interviews. He's over the whole 'I hated being seen as a teen idol' thing now (obviously).

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