Given the choice between Transformers 2 and an update of an old Johnny Depp TV show, it's pretty obvious which option most of us would take. But Jonah Hill is clearly not like the rest of us-- for more than just the obvious reasons-- and recently turned down a sidekick role in the Transformers sequel to executive produce and maybe star in a movie version of the late-80s TV show 21 Jump Street. The choice left us with a lot of questions, and hey look! MTV Movies has some answers! Hill seems to have avoided getting a big head in the wake of Superbad's success, and figured, as far as Transformers went, he had a bit more proving to do in comedies first. “I'm not proven yet,” he told MTV. “I've only been in one movie that people have seen that I've been the lead in so like, um, I could still suck in people's minds, they don't know yet!” Fair enough. He's probably exaggerating how much of an impact he would have on Transformers-- after all, Shia LaBeouf would still actually be the star-- and you figure he would have been playing pretty much the exact same role he did in Superbad, just modified for a PG-13 rating. But still, that's a nice sign of humility from an actor who could be expected to have gone the “Forget y'all, I'm famous!” route by now.

And as for that Johnny Depp retread? Hill may be helping you rest easily when he says “If it doesn't turn out funny, I promise we will not make it.” Now the only question becomes what exactly comes under Jonah Hill's definition of “funny,” (he was in Strange Wilderness, after all) and whether or not the powerful people who will make money off of this movie would actually let him pull the plug. Like Hill himself said in the earlier paragraph, he's not that special yet.

Jonah Hill hasn't really hit a backlash yet, even though he seemed to be everywhere last summer. With an attitude like this one, he may avoid one altogether. I may come to eat these words, but for now at least, he seems to have his head on his shoulders. Even if 21 Jump Street still seems like an insane idea for a movie.