After previously signing on to appear in Sony’s upcoming comedy movie Oh Hell No, Ice Cube has parted ways with the project over a reported disagreement over vaccinations. Per THR, the rapper and actor was given a request from producers to get vaccinated in order to be allowed on set, and he’s now off the movie after refusing to do so. Neither Sony nor Cube have yet provided an official comment on the news.
Ice Cube would have co-starred with Jack Black had his casting in Oh Hell No worked out. Black is also producing the movie with Matt Tolmach and Kitao Sakurai (Bad Trip) is on board to direct. The plan is to start shooting this winter in Hawaii, and there has been a reported mandate put forth by producers that everyone involved with the cast needs to be vaccinated. Different movie sets have been employing different roles when it comes to Covid-related health and safety protocols.
Now that Cube is out, Oh Hell No will delay production so a new star can fill in for the main role alongside Jack Black. Word is that Cube would have earned a $9 million paycheck for starring in the movie, and his exit has led to speculation about why he also left the upcoming boxing movie Flint Strong. That movie shut down after just one day of shooting due to the pandemic in 2020, and it’s currently unclear why Cube left this project exactly, but the movie is similarly on hold until a new actor is found.
One movie Cube has been trying for years to get made would have been Last Friday, the planned fourth and final installment of the Friday series. After the death of John Witherspoon in 2019, Cube blasted New Line Cinema for failing to get the sequel made while the actor was still alive. Earlier this year, Cube revealed two ideas he’d had for Last Friday, with one story following Craig (Ice Cube) and Day-Day (Mike Epps) trying to survive in prison, only to end up in a rehab facility run by Smokey (Chris Tucker). Another concept he explained as the “perfect” script, but couldn’t get the studio to greenlight it.
“And for whatever reason they were like, ‘Well the love story part, I don’t really understand.’ I was like, ‘What the f*ck?’,” Cube explained on Kevin Smith’s SModcast. “That sh*t is so minute in this whole story. It’s so small. What are you holding up a whole franchise for? It was all bullsh*t.”
The good news is that Cube says he hasn’t totally given up on Last Friday. Though he acknowledges the deaths of important series stars like John Witherspoon and Tiny Lister Jr., Cube says he still wants “the f*cking movie back. As the actor puts it, “You know, I want my sh*t back, so I can go make my movie.”
With Oh Hell No out of the equation, maybe Ice Cube will revisit his efforts to get Last Friday off the ground. The movie does not have an official release date. This news comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter.
Source: movieweb.com