The speculation is over ... Ice Cube has finally confirmed he's resurrecting the 'Friday' franchise ... telling TMZ the goal is to bring back the entire ORIGINAL cast ... including Chris Tucker.
A rep for Cube Vision Productions tells us ... “Absolutely yes the studio is in the process of getting the entire
original cast to do another 'Friday.'"
The statement continues, "[Ice Cube] is very excited
about this and has every intention to make it happen.”
Just last month, TMZ spoke with the musclebound behemoth who played DeBo ... who told us both he and Chris Tucker are down to reunite for the 4th installment of the 'Friday' franchise ... but they still have to work out their contracts.
Of course, nothing is ever official until the ink is dry -- and you know this ... MAN!
Ice Cube knows ... you can't have a "Friday" movie without John Witherspoon to punish the bathrooms.
TMZ has learned ... Cube has already reached out to the actor to reprise his role as his burrito-eating, dog-catching father, Willie Jones, in the next "Friday" movie.
We spoke to Witherspoon ... who tells us, "I said, 'HELL YEAHHHH! I am ready to do this!"
Witherspoon says nothing is in stone yet ... but he's very confident everything will be worked out.
TMZ broke the story ... Cube has also been in talks with Chris Tucker and Tiny Lister about reprising the roles they made famous in the 1995 hit.
WItherspoon says he's excited to work with all his old pals -- but he's more fired up about the women ... telling us, "One thing for sure that I do look forward to seeing on the set is pretty girls."
“Cube always has bunch fine women on the set. I am an old black man, how could I not look forward to taping with a bunch of pretty girls surrounding the set?"
Chris Tucker's money problems could be the best thing to ever happen to his movie career ... because the actor has been in serious talks with Ice Cube about reprising his role as SMOKEYYYYY ... so says the guy who played DeBo in the "Friday" series.
Tiny Lister was chillin' last night outside Pueblo Viejo in Hollywood -- when the scariest man in Hollywood told us ... Tucker flew him out on his private jet recently to discuss the possibility of getting the ORIGINAL "Friday" crew back together.
FYI -- Tucker shot into superstardom playing pot-obsessed Smokey in the original "Friday" back in 1995 ... and then refused to appear in any of the sequels, citing religious reasons.
But now, Lister tells us ... Tucker and Cube have a big pow-wow set for next week to discuss a 4th "Friday" film ... adding, "This is gonna be the big one."
Lister told us he and Tucker also talked about doing a sequel to the 1997 hit, "The Fifth Element."
It's been 22 YEARS since Ice Cube left N.W.A. over a nasty money dispute -- but yesterday in L.A., the rapper still didn't want to talk about it.
You may recall ... Ice dropped out of the rap group in 1989, claiming their manager had stiffed him out of royalties. The remaining N.W.A. members -- including Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, and MC Ren -- RIPPED Ice Cube in their subsequent albums.
The rappers seemed to bury the hatchet after Eazy-E's death in 1995 -- but based on the clip, it seems it's still a sore subject.
Thankfully, he was game to talk about one thing ... his upcoming movie "21 Jump Street."
Ice Cube's new movie "Lottery Ticket" doesn't come out for another week -- but there's already a legal fight over the flick ... from a screenwriter who claims his agent ripped off his idea and gave it to another one of his clients.
The man filing the lawsuit is Tom Huang -- who once wrote an episode of "The Mullets" back in 2003.
According to legal documents, Huang claims he came up with an idea for a movie back in 2004, wrote a "treatment" for it ... and talked it over with his agent Brad Kaplan.
But in the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in L.A. County Superior Court, Huang claims Kaplan "stole" the idea and gave it to one of his clients named Erik White .. who went on to write and direct "Lottery Ticket."
Huang claims "Lottery Ticket" ripped off all sorts of elements from his movie -- including "detailed plot elements, characters, and scenes." Huang is suing for an undisclosed amount -- but states in the lawsuit that he believes "Lottery Ticket" will rake in millions ... so it's safe to say he's gonna want a ton of cash.
In the docs, Huang claims that the agent Brad Kaplan denies any wrongdoing -- and believes White "created the story" for Lottery Ticket.
There can only be one king of the airport security line -- and yesterday at LAX, Alec Baldwin and Ice Cube unknowingly went head-to-head. The two matched up in a race to see who could unload and load their crap faster.
Here's the question -- Alec clears security first, but Mr. Cube gets his stuff together faster and starts the walk. So.....
Ice Cube and his entourage flew first class from SXSW -- but his "Friday" co-star was forced to sit coach!
TMZ cameras caught the crew when they arrived back at LAX, but a spy on the plane says the guy who "got knocked the f**k out" in the 1995 flick was the only one who couldn't enjoy the finger bowls, fresh cookies and leather seats.
While most of America spent the day eating a holiday meal and deciding what gifts they'd be returning today, some Hollywood stars chose to continue their celebration at the the Lakers vs Suns game. Click the pic to see who opted out of long theater lines for a little Christmas ballin' action.
Ice Cube, Kiefer Sutherland and Dave Navarro were among the stars in Vegas earlier this month at Spike TV's AutoRox Awards. The ceremony recognizes hot cars in categories like Car of the Year and Best Concept Car.
'EXTRA's' Carlos Diaz caught with the stars before the show.
Ice Cube will serve as host and perform. The ceremony airs tonight on Spike TV.
Before Justin Bieber went toe-to-toe with a photographer -- sparking a police investigation -- he trained with "Iron" Mike Tyson! Wondering how they ended up together? Well, we got Tyson on the phone ... and you won't believe his excuse for kicking it with Biebs. Plus,…
