Actor, rapper and entertainment business mogul Ice Cube has long been vocal about his desire to do another “Friday” film. Last week it was announced that he had reached a deal to write and star in a new “Friday” film. It will be made for Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema, be titled “Last Friday,” and be the fourth entry in the series. It’s also the first to be done in over two decades, with “Friday After Next” appearing in 2002.
New Line president and CCO Richard Brener shared that a deal had been reached with Ice Cube to develop “Last Friday” in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Variety further confirmed the news. Ice Cube’s agreement with Warner to star and direct marks a significant development in the project. In June 2024, the rapper and actor shared that there was “traction” for “Last Friday” at the studio among its co-chief Michael De Luca, speaking with Flavor Flav on his SiriusXM show “Flavor of the Week.” De Luca and Pamela Abdy took over the studio’s film division in 2022. “They have new leadership: my man Mike De Luca, who used to be at New Line when I first started, when I first did the first ‘Friday’ and ‘Players Club’ and ‘All About the Benjamins.’ Mike De Luca was there,” Ice Cube said at the time.
Ice Cube starred in all three “Friday” entries, “Friday” (1995), “Next Friday” (2000) and “Friday After Next” (2002). He also co-wrote the first entry with DJ Pooh and has solo screenplay credits on the two sequels. All three “Friday” movies were developed by New Line, which was run by De Luca at the time of the original trilogy’s production. Warner Bros. later went on to purchase New Line, giving Warner Bros. control of “Friday” franchise rights.
Ice Cube, a native of Los Angeles, has been prominent in multiple phases of the entertainment industry. He was the principal lyricist for N.W.A., the band that made gangsta rap so dominant in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Such albums as “Straight Outta Compton,” “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted,” “Death Certificate” and “The Predator” were all commercial and critical successes. He teamed in NWA with Eazy-E and Dr. Dre. Cube left N.W.A in late 1989, teaming with New York artists and launching a solo rap career.
But he also turned to film starting in the early ‘90s. His first role was a memorable one, playing Doughboy in director John Singleton’s feature debut Boyz n the Hood. That 1991 drama was named after a 1987 rap song Ice Cube wrote. Then he co-wrote and starred in the first “Friday” in 1995. He made his directorial debut with the 1998 film The Players Club, and also produced and curated the film’s accompanying soundtrack. He’s been in over 40 films, among them the 1999 war comedy Three Kings, family comedies like the “Barbershop” series, and buddy cop comedies 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, and Ride Along. He was an executive producer of many of these films, as well as of the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton.
He’s also expanded into sports, with the 3 on 3 basketball league, and other musical and business ventures. No release date as yet has been named for “Last Friday.”
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