Ice Cube wants full control of the “Friday” film franchise, but he says Warner Bros. is standing in his way. Appearing on the most recent episode of Mike Tyson’s “Hotboxin’” podcast, Cube urged the studio to give him the rights to the franchise and rejected the possibility of buying the rights from the studio himself. Cube starred in and wrote three “Friday” movies, all of which were produced and distributed by New Line Cinema. Warner Bros. now owns New Line, so Cube can’t move forward on a fourth “Friday” movie without the studios’ blessing.
“I don’t know. Warner Brothers is weird right now,” Cube said when asked about the fourth “Friday” movie, which is to be titled “Last Friday.” “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 going be close to a time when we get it back. So, we’ll either wait for that time, or we’ll keep trying to convince them that they need to let us control the movie. It’s my movie, but they have distribution control.”
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When Tyson asked Cube if he would just pay to have the rights back in his control, Cube responded, “I ain’t putting shit up for it. Fuck no. They need to give it to me, and they’re going to make money. I’m not about to pay for my own stuff, that’s stupid. They need to do the right thing, get it to us, let us turn it into more money, and make the fans happy…We can do a lot with it.”
Variety has reached out to Warner Bros. for further comment.
Cube revealed earlier this year he has written two more “Friday” movies. He said Warner Bros. rejected both scripts. Cube told Tyson he is currently working outside of the Hollywood studio system due to his decision not to get the COVID vaccination shot. Cube confirmed in November that his refusal to get the shot cost him a $9 million movie role.
“I turned down a movie because I didn’t want to get the motherfucking jab,” Cube said. “I turned down $9 million. I didn’t want get the jab. Fuck that jab. Fuck ya’ll for trying to make me get it. I don’t know how Hollywood feels about me right now.”
Listen to Cube’s full appearance on Tyson’s podcast in the video below.
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