Yesterday (Jan. 1), TMZ caught up with Ice Cube while he was visiting Dash Radio in Los Angeles.
via: MovieWeb
With each passing year, it seems less and less likely that Friday 4, aka Last Friday, will ever see the light of day. After Ice Cube helped kick off the franchise in 1995 as co-writer and lead star alongside Chris Tucker, he’d partner up with Mike Epps for the 2000 sequel Next Friday. Cube and Epps would return as Craig and Day Day in 2002’s Friday After Next, and for the past 20 years, the characters haven’t made another appearance in film.
This hasn’t been for a lack of trying on Cube’s part. For years, he has been trying to get Friday 4 off the ground. Various scripts have been written, but disagreements between Cube and New Line Cinema have kept the project stalled. In December, Cube gave another update on his plan for Last Friday, claiming that the studio was being “weird” with the rights to the franchise. He says that they won’t let him have the control he needs to make Friday 4 and expressed his view that New Line needs to “do the right thing” and relinquish the IP for Cube to properly make the sequel.
“They need to do the right thing, get it to us, let us turn it into more money, and make the fans happy,” Cube said on Mike Tyson’s Hotboxin’ podcast. “We can do a lot with it.”
Now speaking with TMZ, Cube was asked if he’s thought about moving on from Friday by doing a new movie called Saturday. It’s a concept that Cube shuts down instantly, as Friday is about its characters, so Saturday would just feel like a letdown without some familiar faces from Friday.
“You got to use the same IP, so you can’t call it Saturday without using Craig and Day Day,” he remarked.
With that said, Cube also said that Last Friday is not a lost cause, saying that he’ll “never” give up on the sequel. He says he’s still holding out hope for New Line owner Warner Bros. to “do the right thing” by giving him the rights. He refuses to pay for the rights as someone who helped create the franchise, though he also says he won’t be suing the company, either.
“No, ain’t gonna sue nobody,” Cube said when asked if that would be his next course of action.
One issue with Last Friday is that the film has spent so long in development hell and some of the franchise’s most popular stars, such as John Witherspoon, Tommy Lister Jr., and Anthony Johnson, have died. But Cube wants to keep the story going with Epps by his side, and there has even been some talk of Chris Tucker finally returning as Smokey if Last Friday ends up getting made.
