Could Sony Make All-Female Versions of All Its Franchises?

Sony Pictures Entertainment

First spread as rumor, news of a female-driven 21 Jump Street spinoff was confirmed today by The Wrap. This expansion of the franchise that so far is made up of only two movies, including the sequel 22 Jump Street, is also spreading with an idea to crossover with the Men in Black movies. But it’s the female version of Jump Street, which will be scripted by Broad City writers Lucia Aniello and Paul Downs, that has me wondering about Sony’s grand schemes. Is the studio set on producing all-female takes on all of its major properties?

This is the same studio that is currently moving on the all-female Ghostbusters from Paul Feig.  It’s also the same studio that last year was working on an Amazing Spider-Man spinoff focused on female characters, such as a Felicity Jones-portrayed Black Cat. Sony doesn’t have a lot of other big franchises at the moment, but of those I wonder what else the studio might want to take in a gender-reversed direction. With Men in Black possibly jumpstarted through a crossover, it’s only a matter of time before Women in Black is in development.

Here are Sony’s current or rebootable film series and their likelihood of spawning female-driven installments:

James Bond: Sony’s most lucrative franchise right now, with Skyfall its highest-grossing movie ever. There’s no reason for Naomie Harris’s agent to be stuck behind a desk as the new Miss Moneypenny, so maybe she could take off as a woman equivalent of 007 — just not in name.

Bad Boys: The titling of the spinoff would be easy, though Bad Girls doesn’t really sound like a movie about women detectives.

The Smurfs: This is perfect, because there’s never been enough female Smurfs. For a long time, Smurfette was it. Now Sony can make a movie where Smurfette takes off and finds the Smurfy equivalent of the Amazons.

RoboCop: Don’t filmmakers prefer female robots anyway?

Grown Ups: All the wives of the guys from this franchise — played by Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph — get a little vacation time together to act as immature as they want to for once.

The Equalizer: Not quite a franchise yet, but there is a sequel on the way, after which maybe there’ll be some gender equalizing going on. We already know Chloe Grace Moretz plays a mean vigilante.

City Slickers: In the reboot, a trio of Brooklyn hipster girls are upset about nearing 30, so they go on a ranching retreat and get bossed around by a tough cowgirl modeled after Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar.

The Karate Kid: Oh wait, they had this one covered back in 1994 with Hilary Swank in The Next Karate Kid.

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