Lawrence Lamont is about to find out that a lot can go down between Thursday and Saturday.
Lamont, who made a splash last year with One of Them Days, has been tapped to direct Last Friday, the first installment of New Line’s buddy comedy movie franchise in 25 years.
Ice Cube, who co-created the movie series, is writing the script and producing, and will also star in the feature. Also producing are Bob Teitel and CubeVision’s Michael Gruber.
The first Friday was directed by F. Gary Gray and featured Cube and Chris Tucker as slacker Craig Jones and small-time drug dealer Smokey respectively as they faced increasing problems with jobs, girlfriends, exes, family, death threats, all in the streets of South Central Los Angeles. Cube wrote the script with DJ Pooh.
The movie was released in 1995, became a cult hit, and spawned sequels Next Friday, released in 2000, and Friday After Next, which came out in 2002. Cube wrote the sequels solo and starred in all three movies (Tucker only starred in the first one.) There was also an animated series, Friday: The Animated Series, which briefly aired on MTV2 in the aughts.
The new feature will be shot in Southern California and is part of the California production incentive program. New Line received $11.4 million to shoot Last Friday in state, with the project planning for 40 filming days and expecting 43 cast members and 150 crew.
Jeff Kwatinetz is executive producing.
Lamont first gained recognition 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 Award 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 Them Days, which has thematic cross-over with Friday as it too was a buddy comedy set in an glamorous part of L.A., with this story centered on two female friends.
Starring Keke Palmer and SZA, the $14 million TriStar Pictures film grossed more than $51 million worldwide and later reached No. 1 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.