Directing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller, renowned for their consistent success in Hollywood, recently offered insights into the production of their latest hit, “Project Hail Mary,” and a highly anticipated, yet ultimately unproduced, crossover film between “Men in Black” and “21 Jump Street.”

“Project Hail Mary,” starring Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace, a science teacher and former molecular biologist on an interstellar mission to save Earth, faced early challenges in its editorial process. Lord and Miller revealed on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that an initial assembly cut of the space movie stretched to a daunting three hours and 45 minutes, leading to “embarrassing” feedback from filmmaker friends. They received unanimous advice to significantly shorten the film. Miller explained that while their first official test screening went well, earlier screenings for friends, family, and other filmmakers revealed that some of their “charming things didn’t land.” This feedback made it easier to reduce the runtime to three hours, then gradually to approximately two and a half hours, which aligns with the final theatrical length. Based on Andy Weir’s novel, “Project Hail Mary” has proven to be a blockbuster success, achieving the year’s biggest opening with $80.5 million at the domestic box office and becoming the top debut in Amazon MGM’s history. It quickly surpassed the $100 million mark domestically.

Lord and Miller’s impressive track record extends beyond “Project Hail Mary,” encompassing popular films like “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” “The Lego Movie,” and the highly acclaimed action-comedies “21 Jump Street” and its sequel, “22 Jump Street.” The success of these comedies, particularly “21 Jump Street,” which unexpectedly became a box office hit thanks to Michael Bacall’s script, Lord and Miller’s direction, and the undeniable chemistry between stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, set the stage for one of Hollywood’s most intriguing unmade projects: a crossover with the “Men in Black” franchise.

The idea of “MIB 23,” as it was tentatively titled, first surfaced through a hack of Sony Pictures in 2014. While Lord and Miller were slated to produce, not direct, James Bobin, known for his work on “The Muppets,” was considered to helm the project. On a 2022 episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Lord and Miller elaborated on the “very funny and very crazy” crossover script. Miller shared that the plot involved Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum’s characters from “21 Jump Street” getting embroiled in the “Men in Black” world during a medical school adventure, eventually teaming up to thwart an alien takeover. Lord added a humorous detail, envisioning the iconic black suits as “martial arts belts” that agents had to earn, with Hill and Tatum initially being issued “powder blue Men in Black suits.”

Despite the comedic potential, the “Men in Black” and “21 Jump Street” crossover ultimately never materialized. A key factor was the absence of original “Men in Black” stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in leading roles, though their involvement in some capacity remained a possibility. Channing Tatum addressed the project’s demise in a 2025 interview with Variety, citing “the overhead” as the primary obstacle. He explained that the extensive number of producers involved would have inflated the budget to an unsustainable level, making the project “too top-heavy.” Many speculate that it was ultimately for the best that “MIB 23” remained unmade, given the declining critical and commercial performance of the later “Men in Black” installments, particularly 2019’s “Men in Black: International,” which demonstrated that the franchise struggled without its original stars. The concept without Smith and Jones simply would not have worked, leaving fans to ponder what could have been.