'21 Jump Street'

When I first heard “21 Jump Street” was being turned into a movie starring Channing Tatum, I was less than thrilled. “21 Jump Street” was one of the cop shows I watched when I was a kid, along with “Nash Bridges” and reruns of “Hill Street Blues” and “Dragnet.” However, the more I learn about the movie, the more I approve. It seems different enough from the 80s show, but still similar enough to make it worthy of the “21 Jump Street” title. These are some of the facts I learned from Collider.com which make me excited to see the 2012 version:

Photo courtesy of openfilm.com

Photo courtesy of hollywoodreporter.com

• Johnny Depp is rumored to appear as his character from the original series, Tom Hanson. If it gets Depp’s approval, it gets my approval.

• The creator of the show, Stephen J. Cannell, was very involved with development on the film adaptation until he passed away in 2010. The movie is taking the material in a comedy direction while the show did not. The filmmakers hope the end result is a worthy spin on Cannell’s original concept.

• The original theme song will make an appearance in some form. Once you hear that song once you’ll never get it out of your head.

• The directors watched all 103 episodes of “21 Jump Street” before production.

• There’s a reference to Johnny Depp’s crew along the lines of, “We’re re-commissioning an old program from the 80s that was shut down.”

• The directors cite “48 Hrs.,” “Lethal Weapon,” and “Running Scared” as influences in the buddy-cop genre. So, it has to be good.

• One of the directors wanted Ice Cube to play the Jump Street captain because he thought “it would be great having the guy who wrote ‘F*** the Police’ play a police captain.” NWA fans are scratching their heads right now. First Ice Cube was in a PG-rated family flick, now he’s a cop.