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'Last Friday' Stalled After Ice Cube and Warner Bros. Get Into Heated Battle Over Its Development

The fourth entry in the comedy franchise was announced almost a decade ago.

Looks like we might not be getting that new Friday movie any time soon. Or, possibly ever.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Ice Cube and Warner Bros. are in the midst of a bitter back-and-forth over Last Friday, the fourth movie in the franchise thatโ€™s been in development for just under a decade now. According to the WSJ, the movie isnโ€™t even close to being done and both Cube and Warner Bros. officials have been exchanging โ€œheated lettersโ€ about the movieโ€™s fate for weeks.

And now, it seems that Cube wants to break free from the Dubba Dubba WB.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Ice Cube wants Warner Bros., owned by AT&T Inc., to surrender its rights to the โ€œFridayโ€ property and to two other movies he made thereโ€”โ€œAll About the Benjaminsโ€ and โ€œThe Players Club,โ€ according to correspondence his lawyers have sent to the studio and that The Wall Street Journal has reviewed.

IndieWire reports that Cubeโ€™s lawyer wrote in a letter that Warner Bros. was โ€œexcessiveโ€ in studio notes on the script and is a โ€œpoor stewardโ€ of the franchise. All three Friday movies were distributed through Warner Bros. New Line Cinema label and have raked in well over $20 million in box office revenue.

From IndieWire:

Ice Cube originally set the first draft of โ€œLast Fridayโ€ in a prison, but he claims โ€œthe studio told him prison isnโ€™t funny.โ€ Studio executives said โ€œthey felt the fans of the franchise wanted to see the characters in their familiar settings instead of behind bars for much of the movie.โ€ Ice Cube wrote a second script but then got feedback he felt was โ€œoff the mark.โ€ The actor said โ€œhe viewed the entire editing process as a way to delay getting cameras rolling.โ€

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. told the WSJ that Cubeโ€™s demand to release the rights of his movies was โ€œextortionate,โ€ and that the studio wonโ€™t give into it. The studio went on to call Cubeโ€™s claims โ€œrevisionist historyโ€ and blamed him for the movieโ€™s delays because he and his team are unwilling to engage with them.

Cubeโ€™s team also floated around the possibility that Warner Bros. might be discriminating against him.

From the WSJ:

The possibility of discrimination has also emerged as a flashpoint in the conversations. In one letter, Ice Cubeโ€™s representative wrote that movies he has done for the studio โ€˜are habitually underfunded in comparison with projects featuring white casts and creative teams.โ€™ The correspondence points to other Ice Cube films he says werenโ€™t well supported.โ€

Warner Bros. fired back, saying in part to the WSJ that Cubeโ€™s sentiments were โ€œgrounded in a libelous set of knowing falsehoods,โ€ and that they have and will continue to โ€œsupport diverse voices and storytellers.โ€

Either way, this whole situation is a beyond disappointing for fans of the original three movies. Not only have we lost both John Witherspoon and Tommy โ€œTinyโ€ Lister in the years since Last Friday was first announced, but based on all of this, it sounds like the movie just isnโ€™t going to happen.

That is, unless Cube and Warner Bros. find common ground or the studio decides to give up the rights to the franchise. Weโ€™ll see what happens.

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