diff --git a/lib/ansible/runner/filter_plugins/core.py b/lib/ansible/runner/filter_plugins/core.py
index 1cd53bbaa3..623e770dea 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/runner/filter_plugins/core.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/runner/filter_plugins/core.py
@@ -30,9 +30,13 @@ def to_nice_yaml(*a, **kw):
     '''Make verbose, human readable yaml'''
     return yaml.safe_dump(*a, indent=4, allow_unicode=True, default_flow_style=False, **kw)
 
-def to_nice_json(*a, **kw):
+def to_json(a, *args, **kw):
+    ''' Convert the value to JSON '''
+    return json.dumps(a, *args, **kw)
+
+def to_nice_json(a, *args, **kw):
     '''Make verbose, human readable JSON'''
-    return json.dumps(*a, indent=4, sort_keys=True, **kw)
+    return json.dumps(a, indent=4, sort_keys=True, *args, **kw)
 
 def failed(*a, **kw):
     ''' Test if task result yields failed '''
@@ -148,7 +152,7 @@ class FilterModule(object):
             'b64encode': base64.b64encode,
 
             # json
-            'to_json': json.dumps,
+            'to_json': to_json,
             'to_nice_json': to_nice_json,
             'from_json': json.loads,
 
diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils/template.py b/lib/ansible/utils/template.py
index 2491035c59..5b61bc125f 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/utils/template.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils/template.py
@@ -547,6 +547,8 @@ def template_from_string(basedir, data, vars, fail_on_undefined=False):
         except TypeError, te:
             if 'StrictUndefined' in str(te):
                 raise errors.AnsibleUndefinedVariable("unable to look up a name or access an attribute in template string")
+            else:
+                raise errors.AnsibleError("an unexpected type error occured. Error was %s" % te)
         return res
     except (jinja2.exceptions.UndefinedError, errors.AnsibleUndefinedVariable):
         if fail_on_undefined: