Straight Outta Concepts: Ice Cube Says Hollywood Needs Fewer Superhero Movies And More Original Ideas

Ice Cube is back in the news, and not just for schooling Bill Maher on last week's Real Time. Cube also spoke with Variety about the next Friday sequel and the state of Hollywood.

To sum it up, Ice Cube feels that the current moviemaking business model is failing due to dependence on big-budget tentpole blockbusters. He points out that while the craze at the moment is superheroes and monsters, there are still people out there who want to hear stories about "real people doing real things," telling Variety:

“We’re in such a crazy time right now, because all everybody wants to do is hit a home run... Doubles, even doubles that can turn into triples, don’t count so much anymore in Hollywood, and it’s a shame, because we’re here to entertain the people and give them what they want. Everybody don’t like superheroes, and comic books, and monsters. Some people want real stories about real people doing real things. And we’re losing the ability to do that in a major way."

While studios continue to push franchises that they think are going to bring in the big numbers, Ice Cube said, independent projects that have exactly the same potential (if not more, due to their lower budgets) are being placed on the back-burner. Fortunately, there are still a few studio executives willing to take risks on projects such as Straight Outta Compton. Cube offered his praise to Universal Pictures in response to the studio green-lighting the film, which turned out to be a huge success:

“That’s why I’m glad ‘Straight Outta Compton’ performed, because it’s a real movie about real people, doing incredible things. It takes passionate people to keep trying to push those kinds of movies to get them over. Because even a movie like ‘Dallas Buyers Club,’ that kind of movie has to be independently done. It’s a shame studios never see the value in doing those movies until after they’re done, when it blows up at some f–king festival.”

Hopefully Ice Cube's words make it to the right ears and we see more original concepts (though we love superhero movies too!). One project in particular has Ice Cube's name all over it, and it's one his fans have been asking about for years: a new Friday movie.

In the same interview, Cube also revealed that the next installment in the Friday movies is gaining some headway. According to Cube, the (next) next Friday movie is still in its early stages of development, but moving forward nonetheless:

"I’ve been meeting with DJ Pooh, and we’re just getting ideas in a row, then we’ll start contacting actors and really start to see who’s down to do it. And then we’ll start writing. It’s a process, but at least we’re starting the process, and New Line is into it and ready to go.”

Cube's on-screen father in the Friday movies, John Witherspoon, also spoke about the project not too long ago. According to Witherspoon, he ran into Ice Cube at the airport and the two began discussing it.

While we don't know exactly how far into development Friday is, it'll probably be some time before it hits theaters, considering all the negotiations necessary to finalize deals for the returning actors. The good news is we're one step closer to seeing Smokey (Chris Tucker) and Craig (Ice Cube) reunited on-screen for more of the hijinks they became known for in the 90s.

(Source: Variety)