Brie Larson Takes The Lead in '21 Jump Street' with Jonah Hill & Channing Tatum

Friday, 04 March 2011 16:32 Written by Jordan DeSaulnier

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Brie Larson Takes The Lead in '21 Jump Street' with Jonah Hill & Channing Tatum

Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum and Ice Cube have all been announced as leads in Sony's upcoming action-comedy 21 Jump Street, co-written by Hill. The film is based on the 1987 television series starring Johnny Depp and Richard Greico as narcotics cops going undercover as high school students, so eventually, we had to hear about casting for actors who actually look high school-aged. Deadline has the exclusive news that actress Brie Larson has landed the coveted lead role of Molly in the high profile picture.

21 Jump Street will mark the live action directorial debut of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the duo who directed the inventive animated feature Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. They've also been involved with the television series How I Met Your Mother as co-executive producers. Michael Bacall, Joe Gazzam, Andre Nemec, and Josh Applebaum all contributed to the screenplay with Jonah Hill.

Brie Larson had serious competition, as apparently Juno Temple and Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence also auditioned for the role. At one point, Superbad and Easy A actress Emma Stone was also discussed, but scheduling obligations with The Amazing Spider-Man removed her from the running. Larson is most well known as rebellious daughter Kate on the Showtime series The United States of Tara, though she also appeared in the Ben Stiller comedy-drama Greenberg as a similarly free spirited teen. Cool kids will recognize her as Envy Adams, Scott's ex-girlfriend and lead singer of The Clash at Demonhead in last year's Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.