Ice Cube has been vocal about his feud with Warner Bros. over ownership of the Friday movie series, and the West Coast icon has now provided an update on his future.
During an interview on Sirius XM’s Flavor of the Week, which aired on Monday (June 17), he revealed that the series may be revitalized after more than two decades of silence.
“We finally got the attention of Warner Bros.,” he told host Flavor Flav. “They have new leadership. My friend Mike DeLuca, who was on the show when I first started doing First Friday, The Players Club, and All About the Benjamins New Line. Mike DeLuca was there, so now he’s running Warner Bros.
Additionally, the NWA alum shared a recap of his conversation with the studio.
“It was like, ‘Yo, what the hell is going on on Friday? Man, let’s get it back online,” he continued. “I’m kind of hot because they took so long because John Witherspoon passed away. Little passed away. AJ Johnson passed away. It’s like, man, we keep losing people and you guys keep fucking around and not following the rules The movie needs to be made the way it needs to be done, but the point is it has to be done or we shouldn’t screw it up. So they finally woke up.
So far, the trilogy includes “Friday” (1995), “Next Friday” (2000) and “After Next Friday” (2002). Last year, Cooper revealed that Warner Bros. not only owns the titles of the series he created, but also the names of the characters in them.
“You must use the same [intellectual property],”He said. “You can’t call it a Saturday without using Craig and Day. So it’s really the same thing.
While vowing to continue fighting for its ownership, the Los Angeles legend made it clear he has no intention of engaging in legal action with his former studio partners. However, he did say that he will continue to work to “convince Warner Bros. that they are wrong.”
The 55-year-old rap veteran first confirmed he was working on a fourth installment of the series during a late-night interview in 2017.
While recording Drink Champs live at the 2022 Rock The Bells Music Festival, the “No Vaseline” MC explained that he submitted two scripts to the studio, but both were rejected.
“I’m trying to get it from Warner Bros., and they don’t believe in the cultural people,” he said at the time, sharing that they retained distribution rights for any sequels.
“I had two scripts. I wrote one—that was bullshit. They were like, ‘Yo, we don’t want Craig and Day to go to jail because Craig and Day were in jail when marijuana was legal. Sent to jail for selling marijuana before becoming an adult!
“And then, after they said no, they made all these movies about being in prison: Orange Is the New Black… Hardened. And then I wrote another script that was actually about… young people in the hood with… The OGs in the hood clash and Craig has to come back to suppress this because Smokey’s son is the new Dibo and he’s Willin!
He added: “They tripped, man, they messed around, and then John Witherspoon went over. And then Deebo went over… and they messed it up.
