Men In Black, 21 Jump Street to make cross-over film

Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith don their Ray Bans and black suits for Men In Black movies.

A rumoured cross-over between the Men In Black films and comedy cop franchise 21 Jump Street is reportedly set to happen later this year.

The possibility of a film which would team the dark suited alien investigators with the hapless undercover duo played by Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum was first mooted in emails leaked after Sony Pictures, which owns the rights to both film series, was hacked in 2014.

It had been assumed any idea for such a film was unlikely to proceed beyond the early stages of development, but the project now has a director in The Muppets filmmaker James Bobin, according to Variety magazine.

Jonah Hill, left, and Channing Tatum in the movie, 21 Jump Street.

The publication reports that although Hill and Tatum will return to their Jump Street roles, Men In Black actors Will Smith and Tommy Lee-Jones will not return as studio bosses look to relaunch the franchise with fresh faces.

However further plot details of the mash-up movie are reportedly a closely guarded secret.

The original Men In Black film, released in 1997 was one of the most successful films of the 1990s, raking in nearly US$600 million (NZ$887.99 million) at the global box-office and spawning two blockbuster sequels.

Film 21 Jump Street, a movie remake of the cult 1980s TV series starring Johnny Depp which saw two police officers go under cover at a US high school, and sequel, 22 Jump Street have made more than US$500 million.

- WENN