‘Smokey’ Is Vital To Another ‘Friday’ Movie
Ice Cube recently revealed in an interview with Sway Calloway’s – Sirius XM radio show- of his plans for a new installment in the ongoing “Friday” film series. While trying to put together this newest addition to the Friday franchise has been a project that has been in the works for well over a year, it wasn’t until his interview with Sway Calloway that Ice Cube had confirmed the rumors that he was attempting to bring Chris Tucker back as his slightly stoned sidekick ‘Smokey’.
While Cube confirmed his intention on Sways radio show, ‘Sway in the morning’ he went on to mention that this project was still in the early stages and had many obstacles that needed to be overcome. The least of which was Chris Tucker’s recent conversion to Christianity and whether or not that would get in the way of him reprising his role as the ever chronically challenged Smokey.
When Sway asked Cube… “What the holdup was,” Ice Cube explained that he had been waiting for the movie studios to cut the first check that would be used as ‘seed money’ for the project. Now that Ice Cube has that check in hand, he went on to explain… that it’s just down to the creative process now. Being a connoisseur of the ‘Friday’ movies, Sway understood the importance of Chris Tucker’s role in the movie franchises success… and asked whether or not he would be participating. Cube went on to explain – that it was more important to write a good script, for which Tucker would then be more likely to be interested in, rather than getting down to his knees and begging Chris. Before Smokey’s character has been fleshed out on paper.
“I love Chris, I want him to do the movie. I think his fans want it. Ultimately, that’s what we in the business for: to please our fans and the people who’ve supported us all these years — to give them what they want, not just give them what we want to give them.” Source
The interesting subtext to this story, is the fact that Chris Tucker has become a born-again Christian since the inception of this stoner cult classic. So – when Sway asked Ice Cube, whether or not he would be willing to tone down Smokey’s role as the ultimate stoner? Cube responded “that was not gonna happen” …he would not be changing the plot line of this film for anybody. Ice cube went on to mention, he hoped Tucker would see value in the project based on the strength of the script and the desire of their chronic fan base.
Source: Marijuana.com
