Ice Cube fighting Warner Brothers over the rights to Friday and 2 other movies

[xxxbishopxxx]

Ice Cube Fights Warner Bros. Over New ‘Friday’ Movie: Script Battles, Ownership Rights, and More

Ice Cube alleges his films "are habitually underfunded in comparison with projects featuring white casts."

www.indiewire.com

Ice Cube Fights Warner Bros. Over New ‘Friday’ Movie: Script Battles, Ownership Rights, and More
Ice Cube alleges his films "are habitually underfunded in comparison with projects featuring white casts."

Zack Sharf

1 hour ago

@zsharf


New Line Cinema/courtesy Everett Collection

A new report from The Wall Street Journal reveals a heated battle between Ice Cube and Warner Bros. over “Last Friday,” the fourth film in the “Friday” comedy franchise that has been in development for nearly a decade. The two parties agreed to develop “Last Friday” in 2012, with Cube reportedly to be paid $11 million. Disagreements over the script and other issues have delayed the sequel over the years.

As reported by WSJ: “Ice Cube wants Warner Bros., owned by AT&T Inc., to surrender its rights to the ‘Friday’ property and to two other movies he made there — ‘All About the Benjamins’ and ‘The Players Club.’ Warner Bros. replied, calling the demand ‘extortionate’ and saying it won’t release rights to the valuable franchise or any other Ice Cube movies.”

Much of the tension between Ice Cube and Warner Bros. outfit New Line is over the script. Ice Cube originally set the first draft of “Last Friday” in a prison, but he claims “the studio told him prison isn’t funny.” Studio executives said “they felt the fans of the franchise wanted to see the characters in their familiar settings instead of behind bars for much of the movie.” Ice Cube wrote a second script but then got feedback he felt was “off the mark.” The actor said “he viewed the entire editing process as a way to delay getting cameras rolling.”


Ice Cube’s lawyer reportedly wrote in a letter that the studio was excessive in its notes and “a poor steward” of the franchise. The studio said in a statement that Ice Cube’s claims are “revisionist history” and blame “Last Friday” delays on “[Ice Cube’s] camp’s unwillingness to engage with the studio.”

According to WSJ: “The possibility of discrimination has also emerged as a flashpoint in the conversations. In one letter, Ice Cube’s representative wrote that movies he has done for the studio ‘are habitually underfunded in comparison with projects featuring white casts and creative teams.’ The correspondence points to other Ice Cube films he says weren’t well supported.”

A Warner Bros. spokesperson said discrimination complaints are “grounded in a libelous set of knowing falsehoods,” adding, “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.”

IndieWire has reached out to representatives for Ice Cube and Warner Bros. for further comment. Read more about the tension over “Last Friday” at The Wall Street Journal’s website.

 

[geechiedan]

 

[Coldchi]

fuck them. do it yourself.

 

[xxxbishopxxx]

fuck them. do it yourself.

He can't. They own the rights. The best he can do is come up with new seperate properties.

 

[Hey Julian!]

Cube don’t own the rights to Friday?

 

[xxxbishopxxx]

Cube don’t own the rights to Friday?

nope

 

[BKF]

Cube don’t own the rights to Friday?

Nope.... Cube was going to finance the Friday movie himself until someone I believe from New Line said to him that he should let them finance it for him in case it flops and he won't lose money.

 

[xxxbishopxxx]

Nope.... Cube was going to finance the Friday movie himself until someone I believe from New Line said to him that he should let them finance it for him in case it flops and he won't lose money.

interesting that he didn't try to self finance any of his movies after he became a successful actor/businessman.

 

[D'Evils]

Cube don’t own the rights to Friday?

Once you sign your IP for TV or Film rights away....
It's hell getting them back...

Similar to The Wayan Brothers with Scary Movie...

Aaron Mcgruder with Boondocks....

David Chappelle with the Chappelle Show....

Even Marvel can't get the full movie rights back for Spiderman...

 

[gw1933]

"Theyll have a new nigga next year"

The irony in this statement speaks volumes

 

[playahaitian]

Nope.... Cube was going to finance the Friday movie himself until someone I believe from New Line said to him that he should let them finance it for him in case it flops and he won't lose money.

All truth

 

[papi68]

Trump

 

[KingTaharqa]

New Line is reportedly going to have some British-Nigerian actors play Craig and Day Day in the Last Friday sequel. Shit gon be fire!!!

 

[djpolo]

Nope.... Cube was going to finance the Friday movie himself until someone I believe from New Line said to him that he should let them finance it for him in case it flops and he won't lose money.

At the time Cube was like....

 

[geechiedan]

Once you sign your IP for TV or Film rights away....
It's hell getting them back...

Similar to The Wayan Brothers with Scary Movie...

Aaron Mcgruder with Boondocks....

David Chappelle with the Chappelle Show....

Even Marvel can't get the full movie rights back for Spiderman...

Add in sylvester stallone for rocky

Sylvester Stallone originated the classic Rocky Balboa character in 1976's "Rocky," which he wrote and starred in. But after four decades, five sequels, and a spin-off movie series ("Creed"), Stallone still doesn't have an ownership stake in the franchise.

"After 'Rocky II' came out and made a ton of money and then 'Rocky III' hit and made more than all of them, I said I'd like to have some ownership since I invented it," Stallone told Variety. "And that never happened. So I have zero ownership of 'Rocky.'"

Stallone said he didn't insist more on an ownership stake after his attorney, Jake Bloom, told him that "no one gets it." He said that he was "so preoccupied with other things I didn't belabor it."

Stallone made millions on back-end deals for the original movies (he told Variety that he ultimately made $2.5 million from the first "Rocky"). But he said that he's never seen a portion of licensing or merchandising revenue that the studio MGM has made off of the franchise using his likeness.


"They had 100 different licenses, and they said this is all going to be put into the pot, which would have meant hundreds of millions of dollars over 45 years," Stallone said. "I've never seen that pot. I was very angry. I was furious. 'Rocky' is on TV around the world more than any other Oscar-winning film other than 'Godfather.' You have six of them, and now you have 'Creed' and 'Creed II.'"

Sylvester Stallone said he's 'furious' that he's never seen any licensing revenue from the 'Rocky' franchise

Sylvester Stallone said that he still doesn't have an ownership stake in the "Rocky" franchise, and has never seen a portion of merchandising revenue.

www.businessinsider.com

Stallone didn't get a pass cuz he's white...the beast devours EVERYBODY!!! and yet people (including me) still strive to get there...

 

[Nzinga]

Nope.... Cube was going to finance the Friday movie himself until someone I believe from New Line said to him that he should let them finance it for him in case it flops and he won't lose money.

"Please Ice Cube, we would like to lose the money for you"; I bet the cac
making the plea had read the script thoroughly before making the that
statement too

 

[D'Evils]

Add in sylvester stallone for rocky

Sylvester Stallone originated the classic Rocky Balboa character in 1976's "Rocky," which he wrote and starred in. But after four decades, five sequels, and a spin-off movie series ("Creed"), Stallone still doesn't have an ownership stake in the franchise.

"After 'Rocky II' came out and made a ton of money and then 'Rocky III' hit and made more than all of them, I said I'd like to have some ownership since I invented it," Stallone told Variety. "And that never happened. So I have zero ownership of 'Rocky.'"

Stallone said he didn't insist more on an ownership stake after his attorney, Jake Bloom, told him that "no one gets it." He said that he was "so preoccupied with other things I didn't belabor it."

Stallone made millions on back-end deals for the original movies (he told Variety that he ultimately made $2.5 million from the first "Rocky"). But he said that he's never seen a portion of licensing or merchandising revenue that the studio MGM has made off of the franchise using his likeness.


"They had 100 different licenses, and they said this is all going to be put into the pot, which would have meant hundreds of millions of dollars over 45 years," Stallone said. "I've never seen that pot. I was very angry. I was furious. 'Rocky' is on TV around the world more than any other Oscar-winning film other than 'Godfather.' You have six of them, and now you have 'Creed' and 'Creed II.'"

Sylvester Stallone said he's 'furious' that he's never seen any licensing revenue from the 'Rocky' franchise

Sylvester Stallone said that he still doesn't have an ownership stake in the "Rocky" franchise, and has never seen a portion of merchandising revenue.

www.businessinsider.com

Stallone didn't get a pass cuz he's white...the beast devours EVERYBODY!!! and yet people (including me) still strive to get there...

And now its Amazon's turn to whore out Rocky and Creed...

 

[tallblacknyc]

Just call it the weekend or Saturday and finance that shit yourself.. we know what’s it supposed to be technically

 

[xxxbishopxxx]

Just call it the weekend or Saturday and finance that shit yourself.. we know what’s it supposed to be technically

He could literally do the jail script as a whole new property.

 

[D'Evils]

He could literally do the jail script as a whole new property.

I think we already seen what happened last time Cube tried to flip a failed Friday script....

 

[RUDY RAYYY MO]

Fuck the Trumpkkk ball licker

 

[kefta]

Context of racism/white supremacy!

 

[BKF]

And now its Amazon's turn to whore out Rocky and Creed...

 

[TEN]

with no vaseline

 

[blackpepper]

I could not care less.

 

[D'Evils]

 

[gw1933]

The remake is gonna be horrible.

 

[godofwine]

It's funny, when notorious-big was like "the publishing I punish em"

He didn't have the rights to his own publishing at the time. That's funny

On another note:

Interestingly enough, Rowling does not own trademark rights to the Harry Potter brand in the United States. Though the original creator of iconic series, Warner Bros Entertainment has registrations for many aspects of the wizarding universe.

Rowling, her various publishers and Time Warner, the owner of the rights to the Harry Potter films, have taken numerous legal actions to protect their copyrights, and also have fielded accusations of copyright theft themselves.

Everybody gets fucked over it seems. Like Eddie Murphy said, you're hungry and they give you a cracker and you got with that Cracker up not realizing is just a punk ass cracker. Not even a Ritz cracker

 

[dbluesun]

who the fuck are these niggas

 

[TEN]

It's funny, when notorious-big was like "the publishing I punish em"

He didn't have the rights to his own publishing at the time. That's funny

On another note:

Interestingly enough, Rowling does not own trademark rights to the Harry Potter brand in the United States. Though the original creator of iconic series, Warner Bros Entertainment has registrations for many aspects of the wizarding universe.

Rowling, her various publishers and Time Warner, the owner of the rights to the Harry Potter films, have taken numerous legal actions to protect their copyrights, and also have fielded accusations of copyright theft themselves.

Everybody gets fucked over it seems. Like Eddie Murphy said, you're hungry and they give you a cracker and you got with that Cracker up not realizing is just a punk ass cracker. Not even a Ritz cracker

Mr George lucas never got fucked. He did the fucking

After the first film, George owned 100% of the rights to the entire franchise. The next five Star Wars movies would go on to earn an additional $3.5 billion at the box office. In total, the Star Wars empire has sold $4 billion worth of DVDs and VHS, $3 billion worth of video games, $2 billion worth of books.
He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012.

 

[godofwine]

Mr George lucas never got fucked. He did the fucking

After the first film, George owned 100% of the rights to the entire franchise. The next five Star Wars movies would go on to earn an additional $3.5 billion at the box office. In total, the Star Wars empire has sold $4 billion worth of DVDs and VHS, $3 billion worth of video games, $2 billion worth of books.
He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012.

And ever since that shit, movie studios have been careful not to ever do that shit again oh. They thought that shit would fail and they didn't want to be caught holding a big-ass bag of shit. They got caught holding a bag all right. A bag of air while George Lucas has the bag of money

 

[ronmch20]

Studios are notorious for fucking over producers. They often will offer a percentage of a movie's net profit instead of set amount up front. Many have jumped at the proposition thinking there will a huge payday at the end. What they didn't realize movie execs almost always claim net profits are not nearly as much as expected and consequently the producer gets royally fucked.

Cube if he didn't want to finance Friday himself he should have insisted on a percentage of the gross instead of settling for upfront money. The three Friday movies grossed over 100 million dollars and hindsight Cube rolled the dice in a game against the Devil and lost. After getting rolled the first time I'm amazed Cube still relied on some sorry financial advice and didn't insist a percentage of the gross for the next two Friday two films.

 

[TIMEISMONEY]

Add in sylvester stallone for rocky

Sylvester Stallone originated the classic Rocky Balboa character in 1976's "Rocky," which he wrote and starred in. But after four decades, five sequels, and a spin-off movie series ("Creed"), Stallone still doesn't have an ownership stake in the franchise.

"After 'Rocky II' came out and made a ton of money and then 'Rocky III' hit and made more than all of them, I said I'd like to have some ownership since I invented it," Stallone told Variety. "And that never happened. So I have zero ownership of 'Rocky.'"

Stallone said he didn't insist more on an ownership stake after his attorney, Jake Bloom, told him that "no one gets it." He said that he was "so preoccupied with other things I didn't belabor it."

Stallone made millions on back-end deals for the original movies (he told Variety that he ultimately made $2.5 million from the first "Rocky"). But he said that he's never seen a portion of licensing or merchandising revenue that the studio MGM has made off of the franchise using his likeness.


"They had 100 different licenses, and they said this is all going to be put into the pot, which would have meant hundreds of millions of dollars over 45 years," Stallone said. "I've never seen that pot. I was very angry. I was furious. 'Rocky' is on TV around the world more than any other Oscar-winning film other than 'Godfather.' You have six of them, and now you have 'Creed' and 'Creed II.'"

Sylvester Stallone said he's 'furious' that he's never seen any licensing revenue from the 'Rocky' franchise

Sylvester Stallone said that he still doesn't have an ownership stake in the "Rocky" franchise, and has never seen a portion of merchandising revenue.

www.businessinsider.com

Stallone didn't get a pass cuz he's white...the beast devours EVERYBODY!!! and yet people (including me) still strive to get there...

these fucking bloodsuckers man!!!

 

[xxxbishopxxx]

Studios are notorious for fucking over producers. They often will offer a percentage of a movie's net profit instead of set amount up front. Many have jumped at the proposition thinking there will a huge payday at the end. What they didn't realize movie execs almost always claim net profits are not nearly as much as expected and consequently the producer gets royally fucked.

Cube if he didn't want to finance Friday himself he should have insisted on a percentage of the gross instead of settling for upfront money. The three Friday movies grossed over 100 million dollars and hindsight Cube rolled the dice in a game against the Devil and lost. After getting rolled the first time I'm amazed Cube still relied on some sorry financial advice and didn't insist a percentage of the gross for the next two Friday two films.

The original contracts probably included the sequels and I doubt they would have renegotiated. He was fucked as soon as he agreed to let the studio finance.

We really need to give mad props to David Chapelle for how he was able force a renegotiation for backend profits for the Chappelle Show.

 

[ronmch20]

The original contracts probably included the sequels and I doubt they would have renegotiated. He was fucked as soon as he agreed to let the studio finance.

You may be correct. But one thing is for sure, he got some shitty financial advice from his agent or agents.