Ice Cube and Warner Bros. argue over rights to ‘Friday’ movie franchise
Ice Cube and Warner Bros. have been going back in fourth over the production of “Last Friday”, which will be the last installment of the Friday franchise according to Wall Street Journal.
The report creative disagreements between Ice Cube and Warner Bros. have led the 52-year-old rapper, filmmaker and actor to request that the studio give over the rights to all the films including Last Friday. The film allegedly has been nearly a decade in the making. Ice Cube legal team, said in a letter that Warner Bros. has been “excessive in its feedback notes” on Jackson’s scripts, saying that they have been a “poor steward” for the movie franchise.
“These guys don’t get me, and I don’t get them,” Jackson said in an interview. In another letter, representatives from Jackson’s camp said that his movies have been “habitually underfunded in comparison with projects featuring white casts and creative teams.”
Warner Bros. fired back at Jackson, claiming it will not transfer rights to any of the three movies to him, calling his demands “extortionate” and denying his claims, calling them “revisionist history.”
In a letter sent to Jackson’s lawyers in May, the studio denied his claims of discrimination and underfunding, saying both accusations were “grounded in a libelous set of knowing falsehoods.”
“We strongly disagree with any claims of discriminatory treatment, and stand by our ongoing and proven commitment to support diverse voices and storytellers and will continue to do so as we move forward,” a spokesman for Warner Bros. told the WSJ.
The original Friday movie starring Jackson and Chris Tucker was released in 1995, grossed $28 million worldwide and quickly achieving cult classic status. In the two sequels, Next Friday, and Friday After Next, made a total of nearly $100 million in global box office sales.
In 2012, Jackson and Warner Bros. entered into contracts to make Last Friday, for which Jackson is expected to be paid $11 million. However, significant delays throughout the process have caused a rift between the actor-filmmaker and the studio, and reportedly neither can agree on whose fault that is.
Warner Bros. executives claim Jackson is at fault, citing his camp being unwilling to cooperate with the studio, saying Jackson’s other endeavors, such as the BIG3 basketball league, as distractions.
“For nearly a decade we have expressed unwavering support for a Friday sequel, even as the years passed between the two scripts he was enlisted to write for the Friday franchise due to his own delays,” representatives of the studio said.
After multiple attempts at getting approval on a script for the franchise’s newest film, Jackson said the studio remained doubtful that fans would find the content funny and said that they were stalling.
“We’re right there at the finish line, and they don’t pull the trigger,” Jackson said.
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