Ice Cube will return as Craig Jones for the first time in nearly 25 years. That’s right, the long-awaited Friday sequel, Last Friday, is moving ahead and has finally tapped a director to steer the ship. THR reports that Lawrence Lamont (One of Them Days) will direct Last Friday.
Last Friday
Ice Cube is writing the script for Last Friday and will also produce and star in the project. Official plot details are being kept under wraps, but Cube had previously teased that he’d written two screenplays for a potential sequel.
The first of the two scripts centered around Cube’s Craig and his sidekick, Mike Epps’ Day-Day going to jail for selling weed. “After they rejected it, they had all these movies about going to jail. So I was like, ‘Man, see, y’all f— me up,’” he said. “The other script was about the youngsters in the hood having beef with the OGs, and Craig has to come back and squash that. Smokey’s [Chris Tucker’s] son is the new Deebo [Tommy Lister Jr.], and he’s wilding.” The last we heard, the story would deal with gentrification of the neighbourhood.
Last Friday will be shot in Southern California.
The Friday Franchise
The first Friday movie was directed by F. Gary Gray and followed Cube as slacker Craig Jones and Chris Tucker as small-time drug dealer Smokey as they become indebted to a drug dealer while also dealing with the neighborhood bully in South Central Los Angeles.
Next Friday followed in 2000, with Mike Epps joining as Day-Day, and then Friday After Next was released in 2002. There was even an animated series, Friday: The Animated Series, which aired just eight episodes in 2007.
One of Them Days
Like Friday, Lamont’s One of Them Days is a buddy comedy set in Los Angeles. Keke Palmer and SZA starred as two friends who must scramble to find rent money after one of their boyfriends blows through it.
The film was a critical and commercial success upon its release last year, and our own Tyler Nichols had a blast with it. “I tend to be a tough sell when it comes to comedy and One of Them Days managed to really tickle my funny bone,” he wrote. “The laughs per minute were high, with several subtle jokes that are easy to miss. I’m excited for this to come to digital to be able to see some of the gags I may have missed. It does what any great comedy does: blend comedy with emotional stakes for a fun time. Comedies are hard to review, as humor is so subjective, but I feel this manages to be satisfying even if you’re not a laugher. Like any good onscreen partnership, Keke and SZA are a blast to watch and make the running time fly by.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
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