Phil Lord and Chris Miller are quite the dynamic duo!
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These two friendly, goofy film wunderkinds met at Dartmouth College, soon transferring their smart nerdiness and humor to the screen. Both in their early 30s, Lord and Miller created Clone High, a beloved cult classic animated series which ran on MTV from 2002-2003; the bizarre concept of which sent historical figures such as Cleopatra, Abe Lincoln and JFK back to high school. Needless to say, it was hysterical and brilliant.
Lord and Miller then became known for directing Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, a comedy loosely based on the super popular children’s book.
GlobalGrind got the opportunity to head down to a swelteringly hot New Orleans last summer and catch up with the guys on the set of their first live action film: 21 Jump Street, an action comedy based on the late ’80s/early ’90s tv series starring Johnny Depp. The film, which stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, aims to blend slapstick humor, intrigue, fast paced action and Miller and Lord’s unique brand of humor. The plot follows too hapless cops, who are reassigned to pose as high school students and bust a student-led drug ring.
GlobalGrind sat down with the directors to discuss the original Jump Street series, the inspirations for the film and what it’s like working together.
Check out the interview below and don’t forget to catch 21 Jump Street in theaters when it comes out on March 16th!
Tell us about the film’s inspirations. There seems to be buddy cop influences, action, comedy, and of course, the original TV show.
Philip Lord: When we talked with Barry Peterson, the producer — who is awesome by the way — early on, we talked about having it be like some of the more classic action-comedies, like Beverly Hills Cop or 48 Hours. And we talked about Running Scared.
Chris Miller: We talked about 48 Hours and Running Scared a lot. Go back and watch Running Scared. Beautiful movie.
P.L: So, that was what we wanted to make sure it would look like. We were afraid of it being too over-studio-lit comedy, or having it feel like a really broad spoof movie. We really wanted to make sure that it felt like it was, in its bones, grounded, so that we could do some of the more silly stuff.
Coming from animation, to a remake, how much participation can you really have in shaping material that already exists?
Chris: In some ways it’s the same, because you’re still collaborating with a bunch of artists. In animation, there’s a script, but you also have the storyboard team that makes such a big contribution to the story and what the movie is. The dialogue and all that stuff. So it’s still a group effort. And this is no different in terms of the amount of effort that we put in with Michael and Jonah on the script.
Was there any pressure to live up to the success of the original TV show?
Chris: They’re gonna [last] for more seasons than us. That’s for sure.
Phil: Anytime you’re basing something off an old property, you have to tread very carefully. Last time, making Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, we didn’t wanna piss off fans of the original. We ended up watching all the season and all the episodes beforehand.
Chris: And afterwards. To see where we screwed up. But you have to make it its own experience. We tried to take the very interesting idea of undercover cops in high school and try to build a neat character story around it. But essentially, it is a lot of the same things. They were trying to make high school seem a little more grown up. It felt like they succeeded in making it not a kiddy show, not a tweener show. It had edge to it. We’ve done a lot to make it seem as grown up as possible. There’s a lot of great high school movies, but we didn’t want it to look like something that felt like High School Musical. We wanted it to feel like it was safe to take your girlfriend to it.
Also, the show didn’t take itself that seriously. There were a lot of comedic beats in that thing, and it was about the relationships at Jump Street, and how going to high school strained them. To us, it was like a nice jumping off point to do something we’ve always wanted to do: a crazy action-comedy. A lot of people are doing these kinds of things: taking existing properties and trying to make something new out of them. It’s nice to have the confidence that a known property gives everybody. It gives you [the ability] to be creative in a weird way. All the people investing money in it breathe a big sigh of relief. “Okay, we know how to sell this! This is comfortable! We’re not freaking out.” You can go and sneak away and make something original.
How careful have you been with the R-rating?
Chris: We do have an F-bomb problem on this film … I feel like once you cross a hundred, you should slow down.
Phil: Obviously, the subject matter of kids and drugs, there’s some gunfights, people get shot…there was a long discussion about whether it should be PG-13 or R. We felt like [with PG-13], the shackles would be too much. We wouldn’t be able to do it accurately or real.
Chris: We started talking to the Sony people about The Social Network. You know that scene where they smoke pot with the girls at their house? They have the big six-foot bong? They went back to the MPAA like fifty times to get the perfect cut that would allow that in a PG-13 movie. We heard that, and we thought, “How are we going to do a movie about kids selling and taking drugs, getting drunk?” Doing things you’re not supposed to do felt like a disaster. Eventually we all just locked hands and committed to doing [it with an R-rating]. And it made financial sense for the studio, because those movies end up doing really well on DVD. It kind of balances out. Maybe you take a hit by it being R-rated, but the unrated version helps you later.
What’s the balance as directors? Is one of you more interested in the look, and one with actors? What’s the back-and-forth?
Phil: It’d be way easier if one of us did one thing and the other did the other thing. Instead, we both discuss and both do everything to adequacy.
Chris: Yeah. That’s our goal. Adequacy!
Did the improvisational element of the script add to the learning curve?
Phil: Obviously Jonah is an expert at that. He really brings a lot. Any time he opens his mouth, he says a bunch of new stuff that you’re not expecting. It’s really great. You just have to make sure you have enough footage.
When people read written lines, it can come off canned. If you let them do it in their own language and improvise, as long as they stay on story and their drives are moving forward in the scene, it’ll feel a lot more natural and real.
So you think we’ll have a lot of good quotes in this movie?
Phil: I would hope so. There are definitely things being quoted by the crew all the time.
In casting Channing, who has never done a comedy before, what went into that thought process?
Phil: He’s amazing. We had heard that he was really funny. He had done a couple of random, weird little shorts we had seen on the internet … We had heard the rumor that he was funny. Then we sat down for dinner with him to see if he would do the movie. After the dinner, we’re like, “This guy’s awesome! He’s so hilarious! If we could just translate our conversation at dinner onto the screen, we’ll be set.” People are gonna be really surprised by him.
Anyone who thinks of high school thinks of older songs. Will that be in the film?
Phil: There is an element in the film where the two characters knew each other in high school. Channing was more popular than Jonah’s character — probably very surprising for you to hear. And they had some issues between each other in high school. Now that they’re going back to high school for a second time, they’re unresolved. They have their own demons that they have to conquer from the first time. The theme of what life was like for them the first time and having to relive it again is very much running throughout the whole movie.
Did you have a favorite episode of the show, or one that you thought would be perfect to apply to the movie?
Chris: It never gets better than the pilot for me.
Phil: … Johnny Depp has a sax solo while thinking about his dead father.
Chris: He’s really good at the saxophone. And that’s what cool people play. That was the political reality of 1987: saxophones made you cool. That’s real! That really happened in our society! It’s tremendous. Go back. Learn out about history.
