Dave Franco Joins '21 Jump Street'

[Brian Damage]

We've certainly gotten an eyeful lately of actor/soap star/Oscar host James Franco. We even met his grandmother in that Funnyordie.com spot where she deemed moviegoers too squeamish to watch 127 Hours "a bunch of *******." Now it's actor/writer Dave Franco who is building some career steam. He's just been set to play a villain in 21 Jump Street, a film that is getting close to production at Sony Pictures. In fact, it's so close that the inevitable rumors have started on whether Johnny Depp will show up for a cameo. After all, the TV series launched his career. I hear plans are being made for him to set aside a day to shoot one, but I'm not sure what his role will be.

Franco has so far played roles in films ranging from Superbad to Greenberg, and he most recently completed the DreamWorks remake of Fright Night, which stars Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, Toni Collette and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. He also has starred with Mintz-Plasse (Superbad's McLovin) in the widely viewed and very bawdy Funnyordie.com spot You're So Hot. In 21 Jump Street, he'll play Eric, the most popular kid in school, who also happens to be a raging drug dealer. Jonah Hill's narc character befriends him to infiltrate the cool kid crowd. Franco turns 26 in June, and Hill is 28. Channing Tatum, turning 31 this month, plays another undercover officer.

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