A fourth “Friday” movie is in the works with Warner Bros. Discovery, Ice Cube told Flavor Flav in a video shared by SiriusXM on Saturday. “We’re working on it, we’re working on it,” Cube said on LL Cool J’s Rock the Bells satellite radio channel, but acknowledged that the deaths of stars John Witherspoon, Tommy “Tiny” Lister Jr. and A.J. Johnson as they tried getting another movie going has been tough. The rapper/actor added that the studio kept “d–king around, not doing the movie the way it needs to be done.”
“We finally got some traction with Warner Bros. They have new leadership, my man Mike De Luca, who used to be at New Line when I first did the first ‘Friday’ and ‘Player’s Club’ and ‘All About the Benjamins,’ you know — Mike De Luca was there,” Cube explained. De Luca serves as co-chair and CEO of Warner Bros. Motion Pictures Group, joining WBD in June 2022. He previously led MGM’s film division but left after the company was acquired by Amazon.
“So now he’s running Warner Bros. and he’s like, him and my man Michael Gruber was like, ‘Yo, what the f–k is going on with Friday? Man, let’s get this s–t back online,’” Cube continued.
WBD is among the studios who have recently pushed into reviving existing franchises, as it appears they may be doing with “Friday.” The first “Friday” came out in 1995, with the last of the trilogy, “Friday After Next,” released in 2002.
Ice Cube added that he was “hot” with the studio because it took them so long to get behind a fourth installment in the franchise, he added.
“Because John Witherspoon passed away, ‘Tiny’ passed away, A.J. Johnson passed away,” Cube lamented. “Man, we keep losing people. And y’all keep d–king around, not doing the movie the way it needs to be done.”
The rapper asserted that he’s excited for the project, but “it’s got to be done right” or “we shouldn’t f–k with it.” It was unclear what he felt was wrong about Warner’s prior approach to the project, but likely answers could include salary, budget or platform for the release.
Ice Cube previously joined Noreaga, aka N.O.R.E., and DJ EFN for an October 2022 episode of “Drink Champs” filmed at LL Cool J’s Rock the Bells festival. After Noreaga joked that he wanted to be an intern on “Friday,” Ice Cube said, “Man! If I could get it off… I’m trying to get it out of Warner Bros.”
“They… they don’t believe in the culture, man,” he continued. The studio, he added, held the distribution rights for any sequels to the first film. “Everybody’s telling me, ‘Call it ‘Thursday,’ call it ‘Saturday,” but once I take the characters’ names, it becomes a property affront.”
Ice Cube has been ready to bring another “Friday” movie to theaters for years. He told TheWrap in 2015, “That’s my dream. I think all the parties involved, all the people that’s been in the franchise, people from the first one to the third one, want to do another one.”
You can watch the exchange between Ice Cube and Flavor Flav in the video at the top of this story.
