It’s been 16 years since we watched Craig (Ice Cube) and Day-Day (Mike Epps) attempt to recoup their stolen rent money on Christmas Eve. Now, after many years of speculation, it appears the fourth and final installment of the popularFriday franchise — titled Last Friday — is becoming a reality.
Though there have been many “confirmations” in recent years, Epps made it official by posting an image of himself, Cube and comedian John Witherspoon on set.
Details about the film’s plot and cast are scarce, with the official IMDB page only listing Cube and Epps as cast members. However, here’s everything we know this far aboutLast Friday.
It will be a reunion — to some extent. On a 2017 episode of The Wendy Williams Show, Cube discussed the film’s delay, citing issues in getting the higher-ups to cut the check for the film. “It’s a big check,” he said, specifically stating that classic franchise mainstays like Epps, Witherspoon, Chris Tucker and Tiny Lister “want a bigger check.”
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“They were all unknowns at the time,” Cube said. “Now, they’re household names.”
https://youtu.be/xIMhi1JD5yQ?t=1m12s
In a recent interview with DJ Vlad, Witherspoon discussed the original Friday — noting he and the other cast members were only paid $5,000 each for their roles — and spoke about how the budget for a new one would be astronomical in comparison to the original, which cost just $2 million and took only 20 days to film.
Sadly, it appears that one of the franchises most memorable characters, Chris Tucker’s Smokey, will likely not appear in the film. It’s widely known that money was the primary factor as to why he walked away from the franchise, eventually landing multi-million dollar paydays for his blockbuster Rush Hour trilogy.
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“If I could’ve gotten a three-picture deal for $20 million each, I would’ve been right there with him,” Witherspoon told DJ Vlad.
It was recently announced that a fourth Rush Hour is in the works, which could conflict with filming Last Friday. But never say never.
“I’m definitely gonna look at it and see if it works, ‘Cause I never say never,” Tucker said of his return on ESPN’s The Plug Podcast earlier this year. “I definitely want to check it out. If it works, it’s a possibility.”
If the IMDB entry is to be believed, the film will finally come to fruition next year.
