Ice Cubeis fighting for control of theFridayfranchise.The 53-year-old actor and rapper — who starred in and co-wrote the original 1995 film, as well as starred in and wrote its sequelsNext Friday(2000) andFriday After Next(2002) — is on board to continue the comedic saga, but claims Warner Bros. is holding up the process.Asked about the future of theFridayfilms on a recent episode of theHotboxin' with Mike Tysonpodcast, Ice Cube said, “I don’t know. Warner Brothers is weird right now. I don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t know what they’re doing.““We’d love to have it back. I think it’s gonna be close to a time when we can get it back. So we’ll either wait for that time, or we’ll keep trying to convince them thatthey need to let us control the movie,” he continued. “It’s my movie, but they have distribution control.“Reps for Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.Ice Cube.Nicholas Hunt/GettyWhenMike Tysonasked Ice Cube, who was also a producer on theFridaymovies, if he’d ever consider purchasing the rights, the latter immediately replied, “I ain’t putting s— up for it. F— no. They need to give it to me, and they’re gonna make money.““I’m not [going] to pay for my own stuff, that’s stupid,” he continued. “They need to do the right thing, get it to us, let us turn it into more money and make the fans happy, and people will have a good time with the series. We can do a lot with it.“Ice Cube went on to say he has written two screenplays foranotherFridaysequelwhich, if made, would come out more than two decades after the last film in the original trilogy.And while he claimed Warner Bros. rejected the first script because “the timing wasn’t right,” he said the second “was in development hell.““They just kept giving you note after note after note, never giving you the green light,” Ice Cube alleged.Ice Cube and Regina King inFriday(1995).New Line CinemaChris Tucker— who starred in the firstFridayfilm alongside Ice Cube,Nia Long,Bernie Mac,Regina Kingand more — reflected onhis decision to back out from the subsequent sequelslast year.“One of the reasonswhy I didn’t do the second onewas because of the weed,” Tucker said in a November 2021 interview with All Urban Central. “Because I said, man, that movie became a phenomenon. I don’t want everybody smoking weed — and I never really told people this because I kind of forgot about it, but it was one of the reasons why I didn’t do it. Because I said, ‘Idon’t wanna represent everybody smoking weed.’ ““And that’s one of the reasons why I said, ‘Nah.’ I didn’t wanna keep doing that character. It probably was good for me because it kept me moving to the next phase and next movies,” Tucker added.The following month, Ice Cube said Tucker, 51,“didn’t want to cuss or smoke weedon camera anymore.““We were ready to pay Chris Tucker $10-12m to doNext Fridaybut heturned us down for religious reasons,” Ice Cube also said in his tweet.
Ice Cubeis fighting for control of theFridayfranchise.
The 53-year-old actor and rapper — who starred in and co-wrote the original 1995 film, as well as starred in and wrote its sequelsNext Friday(2000) andFriday After Next(2002) — is on board to continue the comedic saga, but claims Warner Bros. is holding up the process.
Asked about the future of theFridayfilms on a recent episode of theHotboxin' with Mike Tysonpodcast, Ice Cube said, “I don’t know. Warner Brothers is weird right now. I don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t know what they’re doing.”
“We’d love to have it back. I think it’s gonna be close to a time when we can get it back. So we’ll either wait for that time, or we’ll keep trying to convince them thatthey need to let us control the movie,” he continued. “It’s my movie, but they have distribution control.”
Reps for Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.
Ice Cube.Nicholas Hunt/Getty
WhenMike Tysonasked Ice Cube, who was also a producer on theFridaymovies, if he’d ever consider purchasing the rights, the latter immediately replied, “I ain’t putting s— up for it. F— no. They need to give it to me, and they’re gonna make money.”
“I’m not [going] to pay for my own stuff, that’s stupid,” he continued. “They need to do the right thing, get it to us, let us turn it into more money and make the fans happy, and people will have a good time with the series. We can do a lot with it.”
Ice Cube went on to say he has written two screenplays foranotherFridaysequelwhich, if made, would come out more than two decades after the last film in the original trilogy.
And while he claimed Warner Bros. rejected the first script because “the timing wasn’t right,” he said the second “was in development hell.”
“They just kept giving you note after note after note, never giving you the green light,” Ice Cube alleged.
Ice Cube and Regina King inFriday(1995).New Line Cinema
Chris Tucker— who starred in the firstFridayfilm alongside Ice Cube,Nia Long,Bernie Mac,Regina Kingand more — reflected onhis decision to back out from the subsequent sequelslast year.
“One of the reasonswhy I didn’t do the second onewas because of the weed,” Tucker said in a November 2021 interview with All Urban Central. “Because I said, man, that movie became a phenomenon. I don’t want everybody smoking weed — and I never really told people this because I kind of forgot about it, but it was one of the reasons why I didn’t do it. Because I said, ‘Idon’t wanna represent everybody smoking weed.’ "
“And that’s one of the reasons why I said, ‘Nah.’ I didn’t wanna keep doing that character. It probably was good for me because it kept me moving to the next phase and next movies,” Tucker added.
The following month, Ice Cube said Tucker, 51,“didn’t want to cuss or smoke weedon camera anymore.”
“We were ready to pay Chris Tucker $10-12m to doNext Fridaybut heturned us down for religious reasons,” Ice Cube also said in his tweet.
source: people.com
