Lawrence Lamont is about to find out that a lot can happen between Thursday and Saturday.
Lamont, who caused a sensation last year with One of these dayswas asked to lead Last Friday, the first installment in New Line’s buddy comedy film franchise in 25 years.
Ice Cube, who co-created the film series, wrote the screenplay and produced, and will also star in the feature film. Bob Teitel and Michael Gruber of CubeVision also produce.
The first Friday was directed by F. Gary Gray and starred Cube and Chris Tucker as slacker Craig Jones and small-time drug dealer Smokey, respectively, as they faced mounting problems with jobs, girlfriends, exes, family, death threats, all on the streets of South Central Los Angeles. Cube wrote the screenplay with DJ Pooh.
The film was released in 1995, became a cult hit and spawned sequels. Next Fridayreleased in 2000, and Friday after the nextreleased in 2002. Cube wrote the sequels solo and starred in all three films (Tucker only starred in the first.) There was also an animated series, Friday: The Animated Serieswhich aired briefly on MTV2 in August.
The new feature film will be shot in Southern California and is part of the California Production Incentive Program. New Line received $11.4 million for filming Last Friday in progress, with the project planning 40 days of filming and expecting 43 actors and 150 crew members.
Jeff Kwatinetz serves as executive producer.
Lamont first rose to prominence directing music videos for longtime collaborator Big Sean, including “I Don’t F*** With You,” “Twenty88” and “On Up.” He went on to work with artists such as J. Cole, Jhené Aiko, Snoop Dogg and Nas. He received an MTV Video Music Awards nomination for Best Hip-Hop Video for “I Don’t F*** With You” and won an MTV Video Music Award for his video “Light.”
He made his directorial debut with One of these dayswhich has a thematic crossover with Friday as it was also a buddy comedy set in a glamorous area of Los Angeles, with this story centering around two female friends.
Starring Keke Palmer and SZA, the $14 million TriStar Pictures film grossed over $51 million worldwide and subsequently reached the top spot on Netflix, holding the top spot for four consecutive weeks. Lamont received the AAFCA Breakthrough Director Award for the film and earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture.
Lamont is repped by WME, ColorCreative and Johnson Shapiro.
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